Inaugural lecture: Culture and inequalities

Mark Taylor is giving his inaugural lecture at The Diamond on Wednesday 21 October, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. It's titled Culture and Inequalities, and it's an open invitation to anyone interested in who actually gets to take part in the arts.

Taylor is Professor in Quantitative Methods at the University of Sheffield, a sociologist whose work sits across sociology, cultural policy, cultural studies, music and games. He spends a lot of his time looking at social inequalities in work and participation within the cultural and creative industries — in other words, who gets the jobs and who gets through the door.

That's exactly where the lecture starts. He's asking what the state of the arts is today, and he's not sticking to the safe stuff. He asks if museums and galleries are full of 'nepo babies', and what effect interventions to redistribute cultural funding across the country are actually having. He also asks the most basic question of all: who is actually walking through the doors of these venues?

If you're around on the night, it's a good chance to hear a sociologist talk about the things we usually only discuss in whispers around the edges of the arts world. The lecture runs from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at Lecture Theatre 7, The Diamond, The University of Sheffield, 32 Leavygreave Road, Sheffield, S3 7RD, with drinks and snacks served afterwards from 6:30pm.