We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the response to our appeal to help us relaunch and reboot has been something else.
Our fundraiser is rolling towards hitting the halfway mark, and it’s already raised enough to repair our ageing site and ensure its survival. But just as important to all of us have been the messages of love and support from our readership. It’s not just the morale boost of being praised either – though let’s be honest, the warm glow is pretty wonderful: it’s the fact that people get it.
As you can see from the array of stars, mega talents, impresarios and “national treasures” below, there is a common feeling that theartsdesk.com isn’t just nice to have. It matters! Now more than ever, the accumulated expertise and life experience of writers going to shows, meeting people, analysing, feeling their feelings, opining, joking, ranting… it all MATTERS!
Remember that as you follow the next steps in our evolution and rebirth – and please do share the word. You’ll be in good company!
Help us to continue by supporting our fundraising GoFundMe appeal
- theartsdesk
Stephen Fry, writer, broadcaster and national treasure
Every day, theartsdesk manages to compensate for the horror of doom-scrolling the news. For me a visit there is a happy reminder that there are still writers, musicians and artists busily portraying us and our world with insight, beauty, wonder, openness, originality, imagination and belief. theartsdesk’s reviewers bring all that before us with insight, intelligence and enthusiasm, but without snobbery, academic methodology, partisanship or prejudice. It’s a wonderful site – let’s do all we can to save it!
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cellist and 2016 BBC Young Musician winner
theartsdesk is such a valuable one-stop website for everything cultural. With its critics often venturing where other publications do not, it shines a much-needed light on the depth and breadth of the arts in this country. I'd really like to see it continue and to flourish.
Edward Gardner, chief conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Artists have a conflicted relationship with music criticism, but there’s no doubt that the best of it enlightens music-lovers and celebrates our work. Performance is ephemeral: it only exists in that room, for those people, at that time. The best reviews memorialise that shared, fragile experience and throw open the discussion to a wider world.
In a time of shrinking press coverage of quality, theartsdesk’s work is sorely needed to honour and ruminate on our music-making. The articles are essential advocates to express the joy and communion of our shared experiences.
Please support theartsdesk in continuing its thought-provoking, intelligent criticism; we all need it.
Dame Felicity Lott, soprano
I so enjoy reading the reviews on theartsdesk and catching up on so many performances that I’ve missed. The reviews are usually much more detailed than anything that appears in the printed press, and it’s great to have so many art forms available in the same place. Long may it continue!
Jakub Hrůša, music director of the Royal Opera from September 2025
Not all performers generally agree that their artistic life depends in any substantial way on what is written about them in music criticism, but I believe that almost all would concur that we find ourselves in a cultural desert if there is no meaningful platform where what happens in the field of music and theatre is written about with love and intelligence. theartsdesk is one such platform, and speaking for myself, I have countless times been moved by positive reviews of the beautiful moments we have conjured up with all our might in public, touched by the depth of this or that exploration of the history and present of art, and fascinated by the speed with which contributions have commented – literally “with a finger on the pulse of time” – on our concerts or performances. I would wish that a platform such as theartsdesk would never have to face any doubts about its future existence. Above all, I am glad when musical productions are attended and listened to, but I am also grateful when those who, for whatever reason, cannot be present can read about them.
Mark Wigglesworth, chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
theartsdesk is a bastion of calm and considered artistic debate. The breadth and depth of its articles connects performers and audiences long after the music has stopped, and thanks to journalists both caring and unbiased, experienced and intelligent, many of us can feel reliably informed about things we have missed on a regular basis. Were the site to close, the arts would lose a much valued friend and an essential source of support and exposure. Everyone who cares about the arts needs the extended contact it affords us – now more than ever.
Mark Leckey, Turner Prize-winning artist and film-maker
If you like a bit of gatekeeping and don’t want total ForYouification, if you need a bit of human agency amongst the algorithmic tide then institutions like theartsdesk need support in resisting the GAFA Stack.
Gilles Peterson, DJ, broadcaster, label owner
The people who write about culture are as important to the good health of the nation as those who create it, by helping audiences discover and deepen their engagement with the arts. In addition, perhaps now more than ever, we need a viable and sustainable independent section of the media where these voices can be heard. theartsdesk is one such place. They have, for the past 15 years, been covering all aspects of culture across music, dance, theatre, opera, literature and art in a way that very few do or are able to. They are now fundraising to be able to continue their activities and create a stable infrastructure for the next 15 years and beyond – please help if you can!
Charlie Condou, actor and writer
theartsdesk is one of those rare places online where culture is treated with both heart and brains. It’s smart without being smug; passionate without being preachy. Whether it’s a new play, a hidden gem of an album, or a bold dance performance, the writing is always full of curiosity and care. You can feel the love for the work, and the respect for the audience. It’s grassroots criticism at its best – generous, inclusive, and real. We’d be worse off without it, so let’s make sure it keeps going
Mark Borkowski, PR extraordinaire
We’re told that social media has created countless critics, sycophants, and avatars – everyone with a WiFi signal now thinks they’re a reincarnated John Berger with a ring light. But curation is not just opinion. It’s insight. Context. Memory. theartsdesk offers something radical in this chaotic, clickbait-chasing culture: perspective.
It’s an entity that actually understands the full sprawl of culture, from the avant-garde to the mainstream, the populist to the profound. As we dumb down, theartsdesk dares to look up to a higher vista.
This isn’t about nostalgia for “proper” criticism. It’s about survival. The arts need witnesses with discernment.
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
We all have to recognize and acknowledge that culture is increasingly coming under assault. It can be seen in the educational priorities, in which the humanities are considered of lesser relevance than the sciences. The same is being replicated in the media: where the space allocated to the arts is progressively diminishing and, in many outlets, disappearing completely.
It is not only industrial power or scientific progress that define who we are. Far from it. Every era lives in history, either through the horrific destruction brought by wars or timeless artistic contribution. Today’s world will be no exception. If culture is no longer considered essential to our way of life, forming and affirming our values, it will reduce the human species to the skills of “deal-making”, guaranteeing that only money and weapons rule the world. I don’t believe that is the world in which we want to live.
This makes the survival of cultural publications even more relevant. theartsdesk is a prime example of devotion to all aspects of culture and, as an online publication, it has an international reach that spreads the cultural discussion far and wide.
It is in our common and vital interest to protect it!
Ninja Tune, pioneering British label
Thanks for all the support you have given us, and also your part in shaping such a broad and important publication in theartsdesk!
Dame Anne Evans, soprano
How delighted I am that theartsdesk is still with us. At a time when the British musical scene is fighting for its very life and the press publishes fewer and fewer opera and concert reviews, it is vital that you keep going. I have only just discovered that your first-rate contributors write their reviews for free – out of love for their subject. This is very noble, but I'm very aware that organising and presenting an operation like theartsdesk costs money. I hope you won't mind if I suggest that we followers make a contribution to your funds, no matter how large or small.
Nick Reed, Chief Executive, B:Music
B:Music is the Birmingham independent music charity that operates Town Hall and Symphony Hall in Symphony Hall. As a promoter, enabler and partner in over 800 live events in our halls every year, we place a high value on the quality, long form reviews and features curated by theartsdesk. They reflect the culture in our city and prompt a conversation which is increasingly disappearing from the mainstream legacy media. An independent, culturally focused outlet such as theartsdesk is an important part of a thriving sector, and we wish it well in its fundraising campaign.
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