Artistic Freedom Workshop: Arts Festivals Summit 2025
At EFA's Arts Festivals Summit in Edinburgh, a workshop led by researcher Kirsten Xanthippe explored the role and limits of artistic freedom in today’s polarised world. Participants examined the idea of art as a human right, capable of challenging norms and provoking necessary discomfort. The session addressed the fine line between freedom and responsibility, especially regarding incitement and harm.
The morning workshop on artistic freedom at the EFA Arts Festivals Summit Edinburgh attracted a substantial number of participants, some from state organisations that were rather less than exemplary exponents of the philosophy. Nonetheless, the general feeling was clear when workshop leader Kirsten Xanthippe from Southampton University (and the Isle of Wight's only viola da gamba player!) asked us all to stand in a line and take a step forward if we agreed with the propositions that she threw at us. In the opinion of the majority who stepped out, artistic freedom is an absolute human right.
To cause offence or controversy is also part of that artistic freedom and in some cases controversy is the main object of the artistic work. There was a more nuanced reaction to the question of whether there should be restrictions placed on the freedom – and who by: governments or artists themselves. Incitement to violence was an acceptable restriction, as was harm to children (though they should be made aware of complex issues as they grew up). However, views that are personal or institutional (religious, political, academic, scientific or historical narrative) should always be open to challenge by artists. Self-censorship in the face of intimmidation, social or media aggression, was seen as a growing threat.
Kirsten Xanthippe is a researcher on grievance politics and democratic governance and she pointed to some of the contemporary pressures that are weighing down society with inevitable consequences for the arts. Principal among these is polarisation. She pointed out that social tensions and extreme divergences of view are entirely normal in human affairs, however there are aspects that are being exacerbated by modern media and the failure of political systems to meet social expectations.
There are aspects that are being exacerbated by modern media and the failure of political systems to meet social expectations.
Two contemporary phenomena are driving this polarisation. The brevity of comments which reduce issues to single slogan views, leaving no room for a more rounded context or explanation of the process behind the conclusion. And 'performative polarisation', in which commentators or news providers deliberately provoke and offend one group in order to energise another. This too is not new. The fabrication of stories of atrocities has been a part of war propaganda for ever. What is new is the speed and extent of the transmission of messages that amplify the politics of grievance.
The fabrication of stories of atrocities has been a part of war propaganda for ever. What is new is the speed and extent of the transmission of messages that amplify the politics of grievance.
Where free arts can help, the workshop discussed, is by challenging accepted narratives that derive from these impulses. The arts can expose the slenderness of the assumptions behind headline views. They can encourage empathy to counter the aggressiveness of political victimhood and they can use their programmes, like festivals, to offer audiences the subtlety and breadth of vision that the 'keyboard warriors' reject. This takes courage on the part of artists themselves and on programmers, like festival directors. To do this, though, the artists have to be free of constraints forced on them by populist sentiment in the media – from either end of the political spectrum – and from the interference of politicians and autocrats.
Article by Simon Mundy
Currently, at the University of Southampton, Kirsten Xanthippe is helping with research for the PLEDGE Horizon Project on Grievance Politics and Democratic Governance. The European PLEDGE project focuses on the emotional dynamics of political grievances and their implications for democratic politics.