Arts & International Affairs Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2020 | Page 17

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
�Art History and Criticism Reviews, published by the Faculty of Arts, Vytautas
Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania. The piece 'Collaborating with
a stick: Algernon Schtick Meets Nina Bambina' will be published in 2020 in
'The Oxford Artistic & Practice Based Research Platform.' An article titled:
'Un-bonsai-ing my bonsai: a plant-based adaptation of Oresteia' is currently
in preparation.
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to thoroughly interrogate the source of
Nu Nu theatre artists’ anxiety and suspiciousness vis-à-vis ACE’s public
engagement, relevance, and diversity requirements. The aim is to
determine if our anxiety is totally unfounded or if, on the contrary, it
is a response to less detectable nuances in ACE’s funding philosophy.
Inevitably, the discussion will have to visit graver questions, like what
makes (or is) an artist? or what is (or can be) the role of an artist in society?
In this context, the approach that I take might appear somewhat
unexpected. I link the sentiment of anxiety vis-à-vis funding from ACE
to the cultural propaganda that we, Nu Nu’s artists, were (often subliminally)
exposed to during our communist and post-communist lives in
Romania. More precisely, I will draw a parallel between ACE’s public
engagement, relevance, and diversity requirements, and the ideology of
the large-scale cultural and artistic event organised under the control of
the Romanian Communist Party, called Song of Romania. The working
hypothesis is that the anxiety and suspiciousness felt versus ACE’s demands
might indicate nothing more than an unresolved post-traumatic,
post-communist fearfulness. Therefore, there is a danger that this article
might be just a paranoid reaction triggered by a distant, traumatic, and
unresolved past. Nonetheless, that might not be the case.
Keywords: Theatre, public engagement, diversity
LO HARÉ CUANDO LA DAMA JUDI DENCH LO HAGA. SONG
OF ROMANIA Y ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND: UNA CUESTIÓN DE
COMPROMISO PÚBLICO, RELEVANCIA Y DIVERSIDAD EN
LA CREACIÓN DE TEATRO
Resumen
El propósito de este artículo es interrogar a fondo la fuente de ansiedad
y sospecha de los artistas de teatro de Nu Nu en relación con los
requisitos de participación pública, relevancia y diversidad de ACE. El
14