Letter: Now to rebuild the art world

Monday 05 May 1997 23:02 BST

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Sir: Of course the "culturati hate the Tories" (Jonathan Glancey, "Culture is booming, just don't blow it", 2 May). It was the Tories who eroded those institutions that provided for an educated art world.

A society built on greed and self-centred arrogance will quickly find its reflection in the slick, superficial art that Mr Glancey describes. Thatcher's people destroyed the fabric of our institutions by denying them funds. Art schools closed, staff shrank in numbers. Business folk made art their plaything, turning the visual arts into a children's world, similar to and even overlapping the pop music industry.

I remember pre-1979 in a very different way. We can't go back, but we can rebuild.

NORMAN DILWORTH

Amsterdam

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Letter: Now to rebuild the art world

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