Do you consider yourself 'cultured' ?

[wavingfuriously]

I used to be an active film buff going to loads of screenings if some critic said the film was half decent and really enjoyed that, also read the newspapers avidly - ok that is a bit pathetic but there are some really interesting articles in them. Also visited art galleries and exhibitions...

Arrival of covid and then cost of living problems has changed all that and I'm lucky to splash out on a streaming service now and again 🙄 Living in the capital and with all the opportunities available I feel bit disappointed that chances for a bit of culture have almost slipped entirely from my grasp..
Why does all that matter you might think ?! well it's not the be all and end all but as i'm on my own and unsuccessful in other aspects of life getting a regular dose of the arts scene was important to me..

Really don't want to end up as a couch potato for rest of my life !😕

I don’t live near a big city. Covid opened up a world of possibilities for me when organisations started putting their exhibitions, lectures, and performances online. I’m glad so many of them have kept that up.

Last night I watched the performance of Othello from the National Theatre.
I have signed up to several lectures at the National Archives.
The National Gallery have an archive of videos on YouTube.
Several festivals (such as York Festival of Ideas) have an on-line presence.
I’m booked in to several book discussions at the British Library.

Most of these are free.

What even is the main point of a ballet? Is it supposed to be the movement, the story or both? I also assume you'd need to know a bit about the story to understand what the movement is supposed to be portraying?

@Sgtmajormummy you can also subscribe to National Theatre at Home for about £9 a month and watch their back catalogue. There is loads of stuff on there. I’m going to take out a couple of months’ membership and binge watch

I went to the Science Museum in London with my kids a few years ago. Although it’s supposed to be free there was a hard push for donations at the door which I objected to.
One argument was that most things can be found online and visitors who want to see stuff “in the flesh” should be willing to give a donation.
So I don’t think it necessarily has to cost anything to be “cultured”. Libraries, radio, TV documentaries all give basic information and quite frankly the printed word press is in its death throes IMO.

You can stream ROH ballet and opera performances, rehearsal insights and interviews for £10 a month. They add new stuff all the time.

Also plenty of free opera, ballet, classical music concerts etc on YouTube.

I agree with you about local museums and galleries @Plexie.
I live somewhere that any Londoner would consider a cultural desert, but our local gallery hosted a Picasso exhibition a few years ago, and the stately home not far from me hosted the brilliant and thought provoking The Vanity of Small Differences tapestries by Perry Grayson in the summer.

The nearest stately home often hosts travelling exhibitions as well. And now and again I pop up to Yorkshire Sculpture Park to have a nosy at the latest exhibition.

Before I had my baby, I lived in the city (London, Paris, Dublin) & would be out a lot at various events. So, relatively. As in none of my married friends who lived in the suburbs (and already had kids) did things like this. I’d also take myself to lunch, the cinema, a gallery. And I prefer reading & listening to the radio, than watching TV. That said, I’m not into anything particularly high-brow. But neither do I follow Love Island.

It varies. Not all ballets have a story - and those that do have a synopsis you can read beforehand.

What's the point of them? Combination of dance/music/staging/costumes/physicality of the dancers.

Both. There are classical ballet stories like Swan Lake, Giselle, Nutcracker, Coppelia etc where it helps to know the story a bit in advance. Also plenty of ballet is based on well known stories like Romeo and Juliet. Royal Ballet have recently done a run of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, and are currently doing Don Quixote.

I feel similar.
Covid impacted my appetite to get on the tube and into central London. I just can’t seem to fathom the energy.
but worst of all is what has happened at home. I used to watch some ‘crap’ films/tv but on the whole watched what I deemed interested arthouse/foreign/creative film/tv.. stuff that wasn’t just produced by the few big film studios. I don’t know if it’s just my energy levels since children and increase in workload but I just watch nonsense now. Nonsense has its place and value but I never thought it would be all I consume.

I think we can tune into quite a lot of culture from home now if we want or locally - live streams from around the world theatres; opera etc.

this is less of a solution based response.. just empathising!

@Goodornot no i defo do , just that have had a knock recently with my health and aging process catching up a bit...out of the habit of tube life!

OP you've had some great suggestions above.

I don't know if I'd class myself as "cultured" but I enjoy going to art galleries, the cinema, theatre and ballet. But reading is the most important to me and that hasn't really been mentioned yet. Would you be interested in reading the classics? You learn so much about history, other cultures .. all aspects of life .. and it's free too!

What to do in London? When I lived there the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A were my favourite places. Also free. And when you come across an interesting theme you can research more about it (more reading). I loved just spending time in the big bookshops on Piccadilly; you can sit and leaf through books for ages. (I usually did buy one or two afterwards)

I loved the Tricycle Theatre. I think it's called the Kiln now? Tickets can be as little as £15 and because it's small, you're never that far from the stage.

You can do a tour of Wilton's Music Hall for £10 and it's fascinating.

Google Free Walking Tours of London and learn more about the history and the architecture.

Look at Time Out for best free things to do this week.

And if you don't like the tube, the buses are fine and actually more fun as you can look around you .. more architecture ..

I loved my time living in London.

@highlandcoo thanks so much😊it was really funny today as i made an effort to go into central london, so planned it part way on the tube and then a bus journey to destination. lo and behold the bus has a big accident with a tree and have to walk the rest of the way !!😂

Check out a programme called Front Row on Radio 4, I think that you will enjoy its coverage.

It's definitely a favourite of mine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qsq5/episodes/player

@wavingfuriously oh no you're joking! Even more time to look around and appreciate the architecture

Someone once told me to remember and look up while you're walking around London. There are so many interesting things up high .. random statues on the edge of the roofs of buildings etc. (they were right)

I hope you did something enjoyable when you finally got there 😊

Oh and yes, Front Row is great and also the post A Good Read for book ideas.

I don't want to be a thread-crashing dick but honestly, if you live in London there's no excuse for not being culturally aware. (I live in Edinburgh, same here.) So much around and so much free. I took a friend to the National Gallery here a couple of weeks ago and her mind was blown by a Monet. She asked if it was real. Yes indeed. Real, and by dint of it hanging in your national gallery, it's also YOURS.

This thread is making me laugh because of the frequent accusation that Australia, where I live, lacks culture (in the Western sense) yet the remarks made about the London-centric nature of responses, even though the OP lives there, make the rest of the UK sound culturally threadbare, which I know it isn't. It makes a change anyway.

I digress. The definition of culture is a bit poncey, but it more or less fits in that I regularly go to the theatre, art galleries, cinemas, concerts and read three newspapers and lots of books. Opera less so. The capital city effect is evident Down Under too, and living in Melbourne has definite benefits, though there are art exhibitions in particular that are only shown in regional centres, to get the money out of Melbourne/Sydney, and I'll bet the same holds true in the UK.

OP, there's a ton of free stuff in London that is world class, and probably unique:

https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/budget-london/101-free-things-to-do-in-london

@highlandcoo There is a guy that does historical walking tours in London and donates the fees to charity. He is very knowledgeable and the tours are fascinating and not expensive at all.

I live in a fairly rural area, so I don't have that much culture within easy reach in terms of museums and galleries. I listen to lots of classical music and read (in several languages) though. My taste in films is not very cultured at all though - I admit that I'm bored by worthy or arty films and prefer to watch sci-fi, fantasy, comedy and action/adventure films! I'm also not really into the theatre. I do go to folk and classical concerts sometimes though.

Op, you live near some of the best galleries and museums in the world and they’re free- there’s no reason to not go if you want to.

OP, why on earth do you think reading newspapers avidly is ‘a bit pathetic’?

I read and belong to a book club. I also like watching a lot of historical documentaries on TV, although I'm sure the more lofty individuals wouldn't count watching TV as cultural enough

It's not just the National that streams its productions - many other smaller theatres do, too. The Guardian does a monthly guide:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/oct/01/the-best-theatre-to-stream-this-month?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

@Squiblet thank you for that. I wasn’t aware that so many theatres did livestream.