2011 not only brought unprecedented social and political changes to the Middle East, it also created a wellspring of creative expression in the region. As censorship fears began to dissolve along with the governments that enforced them, new voices began to emerge in the arts.
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Five Arab Music Artist Worth Watching in 2012
Read our full coverage of the Kennedy Center Honors and profiles of each recipient.) On Sunday night, the Kennedy Center and President Obama honored five of America’s national treasures in the arts: actress Meryl Streep, singer Neil Diamond, actress and singer Barbara Cook, and musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Sonny Rollins. Read full article > >
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Kennedy Center Honors: Who will win in 2050?
A string of big names from the arts world are urging the government to ensure cultural learning is not stripped from England’s schools.
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Puttnam warns over arts education
The 22 recipients of the $500,000 “genius awards” selected by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation represent a broad swath of achievement in the arts and sciences.
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MacArthur Foundation Announces Winners of ‘Genius’ Awards
The British Museum is named Museum of the Year by the Arts Fund in recognition of its History of the World project.
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British Museum wins arts accolade
Can rich donors rescue the arts from the funding crisis?
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The art of philanthropy
The way the arts are financed in England is about to be transformed with the introduction of an applications system from the main public funding body.
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Arts body starts funding shake-up
The way the arts are funded in England is about to be transformed, as theatres and orchestras are required to make a case for their funding.
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Major shake-up of English arts funding
A Conservative peer has donated £25m to the British Museum in what is thought to be the biggest gift to the arts for two decades.
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British Museum gets £25m donation
Comedian Billy Connolly is nominated for the Freedom of Glasgow award for his contribution to the arts and charity.
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Big Yin being given Freedom of Glasgow
Anything with sex in the title sells and comedy is always a big pull, too, but anyone turning up to see standup Keith Farnan’s show at Underbelly may be in for a surprise. Sex Traffic: How Much Is That Woman in the Window? is about an aspect of sex that isn’t funny at all.
Almost every festival throws up its themes, and if hot tickets such as As You Lie and Sub Rosa seem concerned with the soured sexual relationships between men and women, other works explore darker territory. The Emma Thompson-sponsored Fair Trade at Pleasance Dome is inspired by the stories of two women brought to London from Africa and Albania, while Cora Bissett’s Roadkill, at the Traverse, is about trafficking into Scotland. Here, the police are running a hefty awareness campaign, including putting posters in gents’ toilets as a reminder that a lads’ night out that ends with paid sex could involve trafficked women.
Bissett has thought carefully about how to use true stories to make theatre. “You have to take responsibility, and so do the audience. The test of Roadkill is whether it makes people come out asking, ‘What can I do?’”
The problem, say campaigners, is one of invisibility. Some people believe sex trafficking isn’t a major problem because it isn’t easily seen. It’s an issue neatly summed up by the title of Kathleen Ann Thompson’s one-woman show See Me! Hear Me!, which focuses on themes of domestic and sexual slavery.
As Bissett, who takes her audience out of the theatre, on to the bus and into an Edinburgh flat, says: “The flats and houses where the women are being kept don’t have big red lights outside. You might not realise what was happening next door. The women are moved around so they become untraceable.”
On the Fringe at least, this hidden world is openly on view.
Sex Traffic: How Much Is That Woman in the Window? is at the Underbelly (08445 458 2520) until 29 August. Fair Trade is at Pleasance Dome (0131-556 6550) until 30 August. Roadkill is at the Traverse (0131-228 1404) until 29 August.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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This article titled “Dramas expose dark side of sex” was written by Lyn Gardner, for The Guardian on Monday 9th August 2010 21.01 UTC