Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Munira Mirza
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British public servant Munira Mirza.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Too often, it is presumed that young people will only like art that they can immediately relate to. Working-class students may be steered towards popular culture like hip-hop, new media and film on the basis that they will find older art forms such as opera or ballet irrelevant.
I think that in the past there has been a kind of cultural resistance to Latin because it's associated with elitism.
Differences in racial outcomes are not the same thing as institutional racism any more than the fact that far more men than women are locked up is evidence of institutional sexism.
The 'Shoreditchification' of certain areas, although it's seen as a negative by some, has actually been very positive for parts of London.
If black artists can win major commissions and international acclaim, why do we assume that to be black is always to be marginal, or in need of special support? We have to recognize how diversity initiatives can make black artists feel ghettoized and, as some cultural commentators have argued, bear 'the burden of representation.'
Oxford is a very special place. You really sensed the value of a good education there.
Public art is a unique type of art. It's very different to gallery art because it is something that we pass by every day and it inevitably creates a lot of discussion in a way that gallery art does not.
But everyone, including ethnic minorities, should be worried about how anti-racism is becoming weaponized across the political spectrum - how a lot of people in politics think it's a good idea to exaggerate the problem of racism.
Throughout history, cities have been associated with incredible bursts of creative energy - the Renaissance in Florence, or modernism in Paris. London is the cultural metropolis of the early 21st century.
Some people think that culture is overhyped and peripheral. A season of opera is less important than the refurbishment of a school, they say. Leaving aside the poverty of imagination and aspiration implicit in such a sentiment, it also ignores hardheaded economic reality: Britain, and London in particular, makes big money from culture.
We need to have a view that culture has a value in itself, not just in terms of a social and economic value.
In times of stress, it is easy to look to one's weaknesses and fear the worst, but it is worth remembering that London's cultural strengths are not some ephemeral dot-com bubble; they are a real, tangible legacy of decades of investment in talent.
There has been a genuine willingness from many in the arts sector to try to understand people who are not within the arts elite.
A civilised society ought to make ample provision for everyone, no matter their background, to enjoy the arts and culture.
A lot of my work involves criss-crossing London to visit the many hundreds of projects, theaters, galleries, museums and groups that comprise the capital's astonishingly rich cultural life.
There are people working in arts organizations who feel that in recent years there has been a sacrifice of quality and excellence in favor of ticking the right boxes and using the right buzz words because that's what their masters tell them.
To challenge the dominance of identity politics, we need to champion an alternative universalist approach. This wouldn't mean bland similarity, with everybody talking and looking the same. Instead, it would help us challenge the imposition of formal, ethnic categories and allow us to develop richer differences based on character and interests.
Some Muslim lobby groups have argued that Christian groups already have public funding for their schools and services so they should too. In response, there are now Hindu and Sikh organisations demanding their own concessions lest they feel left out. The demand to wear the headscarf one day spurs the demand to wear the crucifix the next.
Paradoxically, by insisting on engaging with Muslims as a separate group, the authorities make many of them feel even more excluded.
A well-run, well-stocked library with access to great books as well as the Internet is essential.
I think that there is a tendency to underestimate the public.
Just as a city cannot protect its manufacturing base without keeping its factories, we cannot have a strong arts sector without studios, rehearsal space, and performance venues.
After Brexit, we need to design a modern and fair immigration system which attracts talent and investment from the E.U. and the rest of the world.
It's important that we challenge the culture of low expectations. You need to believe every child can do well.
Culture is the glue that really binds, especially in cities with fast-growing populations.
Paradoxically, just at the point when racist attitudes were declining in society and many ethnic groups were integrating successfully, our political leaders became obsessed with racism.
We want young people to get every opportunity to experience culture, to understand it and to think it is for them.
I've argued for a much less instrumentalist politicized approach, freeing up the arts and enabling them to deliver high-quality projects.
The creative sector is incredibly important to London's economy in a number of different ways.
Perhaps inevitably, media stories focus on differences, which exacerbates tensions; yet Islamic radicalization is, in part, an acute expression of broader trends that affect us all.
London centre has a wealth of creative activity but there are parts of London where there isn't a cinema or where library provision is quite weak.
I don't think a good education should be confined to a privileged few.
A major step towards the universalist approach would be to dismantle the countless diversity policies that encourage people to see everything through the prism of racial difference.
You'd be surprised. A number of developers recognize that having a cultural activity in their space brings kudos. People like the idea of being near to creatives.
Britain has lots of celebrities who are well known and admired today, but we don't seem to have any heroes.
Most Muslims are well integrated, want to live under British law and prefer to send their children to mixed schools. They do not live in bleak ghettoes cut off from society. Their religion is not a barrier to integration and is very often perfectly reconciled with being - and feeling - British.
There's been a kind of inverse snobbery about culture. I get the feeling some people would look at Shakespeare and say, that's a bit too intimidating for working-class people.
London can be a platform to look at what living in contemporary Britain is all about.
As a transplanted northerner, London has always signified big-city glamour and cosmopolitanism. It's part of what drew me here after university.
I realized very quickly that the main thing that the left was not in favor of was free speech - that there was an intolerance about different ideas and opinions.
The people who fund the arts, provide the arts, and research the arts have all produced a consensus about the value of what they do, which hardly anyone challenges. But do the numbers add up? For all the claims made about the arts, how accurate are they?
In capitalist terms, art is a global marketplace and artistic labour is too.
It would, of course, be wrong to say that the arts have no social value. They have tremendous power and can often, indirectly, make our world a better place to live in.
The emergence of a strong Muslim identity in Britain is, in part, a result of multicultural policies implemented since the 1980s, which have emphasized difference at the expense of shared national identity.
Stop and search has a controversial history and has not always been carried out professionally by individual officers. Liberal-minded people are right to be wary about its overuse. However, it is also regarded by most people as a legitimate and necessary tactic.
For many there is a degree of constancy in our culture; London won't let you down.
But I do love working for Boris because he never stops. He's always fizzing with good ideas, and when you are looking after culture, that is important. He's quite ambitious for London.
We should get rid of 'tick box' measures that do nothing to address underlying inequality in areas like employment. And we should interrogate the claims of victimization made by some organizations to get their slice of pie.
Londoners deserve a great, free music festival with excellent bands from around the world. They don't need to be hectored about why racism is bad or accosted by activists explaining why Castro is a hero.
A school that believes in the power of knowledge and learning will have reading at its core.
Sectarian political festivals are not the way Londoners want their money to be spent. Most of us, I suspect, just want to be trusted to get on with other people and not be instructed by activists about the dangers of racism.
At the same time women are putting on the headscarf, they are also going to work, to education, increasingly vocal in the media - and this is the confusing thing about Muslim women in the West,. They are becoming Westernized at the same time as they are adopting their religious identity more strongly.
Why is London particularly attractive for artists? It's partly this incredible concentration of organizations that have a long history but also the spontaneous and informal culture and the opportunities in London.
A hero usually rises above the ordinary because he or she exemplifies some virtue that everyone can recognize.
In cities across the world, directors of leading arts institutions, galleries and museums know that when it comes to attracting locals to their major exhibitions and shows, weekdays tend to be 'cultural dead time' for working people, who are simply too busy to enjoy what their city has to offer.
Being falsely accused of racism is, at best, unpleasant and at worst, can destroy a career.
The most anyone could reasonably say about institutional racism is that the 'evidence is far from conclusive.
Certainly, 'creativity' has been a vital plank of New Labour strategy. It not only hands out money with the enthusiasm of a Medici, but also invites the talented arts world into the very heart of government.
Barriers today are largely class-based - income, networks, education. And those affect many white people as well.
London's top colleges attract the best young talent from around the world; they're truly a national asset.
Related Authors
Andrew Yang Quotes
American
Public Servant
Ben Bernanke Quotes
American
Public Servant
David Frum Quotes
American
Public Servant
Elizabeth Warren Quotes
American
Public Servant
Henry Paulson Quotes
American
Public Servant
James Comey Quotes
American
Public Servant
Janet Reno Quotes
American
Public Servant
Janet Yellen Quotes
American
Public Servant
Karren Brady Quotes
British
Public Servant
Michael Hayden Quotes
American
Public Servant
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf Quotes
Iraqi
Public Servant
Paula White Quotes
American
Public Servant
Samantha Power Quotes
Irish
Public Servant
Steve Bannon Quotes
American
Public Servant
Vivek Murthy Quotes
American
Public Servant
Wendy Kopp Quotes
American
Public Servant