Morning:
14°c
London's universities are joining forces to make public their unsung contribution to the capital's thriving cultural life.
Nine institutions including the University of the Arts, King's College and Birkbeck will invite the public to a festival showcasing what they do.
Poet Andrew Motion and author Blake Morrison will take part in events during the week-long Inside Out Festival from 19 October. There will be about 40 concerts, workshops and talks on subjects from portraiture to contemporary attitudes towards the Holocaust.
Sally Taylor, director of the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange, which is hosting the festival, said: “There are a lot of really interesting things that the universities are contributing to London life that most people are unaware of.”
A curtain-raiser will take place on 12 October with Michael Portillo chairing a debate at Kings Place entitled “Art: what's it good for?”
Reader views (3)
The only prominent thing that I can see the Universities/Colleges doing is - bringing mediocre students who come on a 3 year visa for a one year course who never leave anyway. Fundamentally, to compromise the future welfare of the country for the sake of a few thousand pounds.
- G, London
Yes, what exactly have universities done for you? I seem to see a glut of soft, almost irrelevant, Arts degrees, instead of more important Science, Maths and Engineering degrees. I am sure concerts, workshops and talks on various subjects will be very interesting, but surely a university´s main function is to educate, and to educate in relevant subjects, appropriate to a society´s needs.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands
Louise: surely you realise that neither King's nor Birkbeck is a 'University', both are colleges of the Federal University of London. As are LSE, UCL, Queen Mary, LSHTM, many medical schools and the Courtauld Institute, the Warburg Institute etc, etc. An exception is Imperial, formerly a college of the University, but now an independent University.
- Dectora, London UK
