ACE chief Henley rejects ‘ugly’ criticism of community engagement efforts

Excellence is not an absolute characteristic but a relative one. You can have excellence at all levels and in different ways. You can have an excellent children’s choir or an excellent community arts project just as you can have an excellent professional orchestral concert or an excellent professional theatre production. It can also be helpful if the nature of excellence is in-part measured by the people making the art rather than external ‘experts’. We all like to do better and I think often acknowledge if something has not been as good as it could have been. Community art and international chamber music can both be excellent – but obviously in different ways.