Art Party

In 2011, the artist Patrick Brill (who works under the name Bob and Roberta Smith) wrote to the then education secretary Michael Gove in the form of a giant painted letter attacking the government’s policy of sidelining art in schools. Now comes a clever, bonkers mix of documentary, performance art and hilarlious dramatisation featuring a fictional education secretary called Michael Grove (played by actor John Voce). Artists including Jeremy Deller and Cornelia Parker make heartfelt pleas to protect art lessons. The film makes the point that in 2013 14 percent fewer kids chose art at GCSE level than in 2010. It’s mostly set at the 2013 Art Party Conference in Scarborough, where Grove makes a speech attacking artists – before a dramatic change of heart sees him throw himself into an orgy of art, rolling around in Yves Klein blue paint like a tripped-out ’60s hippy. I doubt that Michael Gove’s successor Nicky Morgan or anyone else in government will watch this. If they did, their response on ‘Question Time’ might be along the lines of ‘These artists are living in cloud cuckoo land.’ But it’s worth remembering that cloud cuckoo land – otherwise known as the creative industries – are worth £71.4 billion a year to the UK economy.