Letters | 15 November 2018

Hearts as well as heads

Sir: Simon Jenkins suggests we should stop remembering and start forgetting about the first world war (‘Don’t mention the war’, 10 November). His beef is with artists in particular, claiming that art ‘drenches history in emotion’. He prefers to read history books.

No one would argue against history books, but surely it is not a question of either/or. Artists tell a story in a different way from historians, often to a different audience. They can move people to want to find out more: to look in the box of letters in the attic, to find out about their family connection to the war, to think again about the past and how it impacts on our present. Good history books open our minds to new ideas and perspectives. Good art opens our hearts and our minds.

The 14-18 NOW programme of first world war centenary arts commissions has invited some of the world’s leading artists to create new work in response to the centenary. With funding from government and the Lottery — though nothing like the sums Jenkins referred to — as well as vital corporate and philanthropic support, our artists have reached more than 35 million people in the UK so far, including many young people.

Jenkins says he will ponder the war with the help of historians, not artists. That’s fine. But let others experience the work of artists, who invite us to imagine and participate as well as think. The fact that we haven’t learnt the lessons of history is not a justification for forgetting the horrors of war.
Jenny Waldman

Director, 14-18 NOW London SE1

World view

Sir: David Woodhead (Letters, 10 November) described Tony Abbott’s WTO trade solution as ‘disingenuous’ on the basis of all existing WTO members having additional bilateral and regional trade agreements in place, and therefore a WTO solution for the UK would not be comparable.