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From The Algarve - November 07

‘Culture lives by sympathies and admirations’ said Henry James’ brother, who, as far as I know, never visited Sao Bras.

He would have had little time for the ex-pats who complain about the lack of culture in this town of 10,000, which has three art galleries two weekly papers each of which carry poems sent in by readers, and a year long series of folk music concerts in the open air and indoors,

But let us not be uncritical. While the museum art gallery has consistently high standards, the municipal gallery allows the local artists to have a month’s solo exhibition of unskilled and uninspired dreadfulness, most of them exhibiting a depressing ignorance of the rules of perspective. As for the poems, they are mostly ten lines about the beautiful countryside, departed relatives, or why is Portugal not as strong as it was in the time of Vasco Da Gama but, to quote - not William James but Frankie Howard, ‘Mock ye not’. At least they’re trying.

Very few UK towns would have papers giving space to local poets, or well appointed galleries for local artists. As for the folk music, to the foreign ear, the tunes, song and dances all sound the same, two hours of variations on‘The Dashing White Sergeant’, but there are always sizeable local audiences for them, albeit most concerts start after 10pm and end after midnight.

But for the collar, tie and posh frock brigade there is the Algarve Symphony Orchestra, a forty-strong outfit composed of British, German, and Dutch musicians who bring Beethoven, Bach and Brahms to indoor and outdoor audiences up and down the Algarve. Why are there no Portuguese musicians? None ever apply, nor did any ever apply when the orchestra was formed five years ago.

There are a couple of theatre companies which work hard to merit the description ‘ amateur’, and two film clubs.  While you are making up your mind about your idea of culture, let me complete the quotation with which I started: ‘Real culture lives by sympathies and admirations, not by dislikes and disdains’