the rememberers

The American blog Theatre Ideas argues for local, sustainable and decentralised theatre. This week it quotes a bleak assessment of the arts today from the Kentucky writer and farmer, Wendell Berry (left),

'In a disintegrating, shallowly pluralistic society such as ours, the artist's role gravitates toward a kind of nonessential entertainment, which merely distracts from things that matter.'

'In a truly grounded, locally adapted culture, the artists would be the rememberers. They would memorialize great occasions, preserve necessary insights and so on.'