The cultural snobs, whether in the form of critics, audience members or professionals, are old-fashionedexclusivists who clearly wish to keep culture to themselves.They are against such ideas as ‘access’ and ‘outreach’.

Cultural snobs have one overriding emotion: fear. Firstly, fear that more of something makes it worse, and that, as Letts says, ‘accessibility is the enemy of art’.57 This is an odd claim. Is a painting worse when 30,000 people see it as opposed to 300? The experience of seeing it in a crowded gallery is undoubtedly worse than seeing it in an empty room, but how can the art itself be debased by extra pairs of eyes? If schoolchildren are allowed to attend a Shakespeare play, they might not understand all of it, but how does that turn them into ‘enemies’ of art, or alter the artwork itself?

The cultural snobs’ other fear is that their own claim to superior status through cultural knowledge and expertise will be undermined if more people gain access to the same qualities. The cultural absolutism of this group is akin to religious fundamentalism – only the correct historical texts contain the truth, and only the priesthood can interpret them. And, like all true believers, they feel embattled: ‘In any period it is upon a very small minority that the discerning appreciation of art and literature depends…’ 58

Neo-mandarins he position of the neo-mandarins is different from that of the cultural snobs. These people are ‘cultivated’ and are cultural enthusiasts who wish to share their enthusiasmswith others. They believe it is patronising to assumethat anyone is incapable of understanding and enjoying culture and are keen to educate them in ‘high’ culture. The approach is typified in the Mayor of London’s draft cultural strategy published in November 2008:

We should also be ambitious about what young people will enjoy. Too often it is presumed that young people will only like art that they can immediately relate to. Working-class students may besteered towards popular culture like hip-hop, new media and film on the basis that they will find older art forms like opera orballet irrelevant.59