With apologies to Ralph McTell
http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/view.cfm?id=5232&issue=227
The Arts of England
Have you seen that old curator
In the closed-down gallery
Kicking up the feedback forms, generic
with his worn out trainers?
In his eyes you see no white cube
And held loosely at his side
Yesterday’s funding form saying re-apply
So how can you tell me you’re starving,
And say for you that the arts don’t provide?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the Arts of England
I’ll show you something to make you change your mind
Have you seen the old brit artist
Who walks the streets of Hackney
Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?
She’s no time for site-specifics,
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two Tate Modern bags.
Chorus
In his Chelsea flat
At a quarter past eleven,
Jeremy Hunt is sitting there on his own
Looking at the world
Over the rim of his decanter,
Each sip lasts an hour
As he wonders what can be done
Chorus
And have you seen the old employees
Outside the conceptualist’s mission
Memory sticks fading with
The Muji clothes they wear.
In our regenerated city,
The foreign tourist cries a little pity
For one more forgotten art-world
In an international scene that doesn’t care