ABSTRACT
This chapter begins to explore our interview data, building a crowdsourced definition of the word ‘contemporary’. For our interviewees, ‘contemporary’ could mean anything made recently or by a living artist, experimental or boundary-pushing work, art that ‘spoke to today’ and could not have been made in an earlier time or recent work that was alternative or not mainstream. We explore the negative stereotypes of the contemporary in each art form and the underlying themes of a perceived lack of skill or a fear of being made to join in. We look at the specific attitudes to the choreographer Matthew Bourne and the visual artist Grayson Perry, who were frequently mentioned in our interviews as the acceptable face of contemporary arts.
