From the shortest and most deadly review of just a few words, such as ‘can’t sing, can’t act, can dance a little’ to a considered piece of long-form journalism, arts criticism has an important place in our cultural life. Promoting debate, encouraging comparisons, boosting sales and even occasionally giving rise to a lawsuit, criticism is an art and a discipline in itself.
‘Arts criticism is important in many ways,’ says Peter Burdon, a singer and musicologist, who has been an active reviewer of music, dance and drama since the mid-1990s and Chair of the Adelaide Critics Circle since 2010.
