The boycott crisis

Something has gone wrong in the arts.Not at the margins, not in isolated incidents, but structurally -in the way decisions are made about who gets to create, perform, exhibit, publish and be heard.An ecology that was once built on talent, artistic judgement, meritocracy and creative risk has been gradually displaced by a different dynamic: fear, informal or direct sanctions, quiet cancellations, the normalisation of silence, the avoidance or subversion of due process and formal procedures, a heightened sense of anxiety about reputational risk, safeguarding and safety. 1 The Guardian's five-star review of Róisín Murphy's Hit Parade explicitly weights a political position over artistic merit: https:// www.