Digital Week Sixteen: Arts

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” 
― Pablo Picasso

When she was awarded the 2018 PEN Pinter Prize, the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made a powerful statement about the writer’s responsibility to step outside the artistic medium and engage in political activism: “Art can illuminate politics. Art can humanize politics. Art can shine the light towards truth. But sometimes that is not enough. Sometimes politics must be engaged with as politics” (qtd in The Guardian, 9 October 2018).

For the fifteenth week of TORCH Goes Digital, we focused on the theme of the Arts. Some of the highlights from this week's theme included:

• Life and Death at Offbeat Festival
• Art & Action: Symposium Report
• Epic Performances from the Middle Ages into the Twenty-First Century
• Ibsen, Scandinavia, and the Making of a World Drama

On the evening of Thursday 9th July, from 5.00pm-6.00pm, we had our  Big Tent, Live Events! live-streamed discussion, The Arts in Lockdown, with Professor Judith Buchanan and Professor John Wyver.

 #TORCHGoesDigital! and our Big Tent, Live Events! would not be the successes they are without your interest, appreciation and interaction.