Not many people in the arts over the past half-century in Britain had as big an influence behind the scenes writing, producing, proselytising as Michael Kustow, who has died aged 74 following a heart attack. For someone who never really felt he belonged, Kustow was nonetheless involved in many of the greatest artistic enterprises of our day. This activity was always pursued under the aegis of some outstanding figure he admired as a creative father figure: Arnold Wesker at Centre 42 at the Roundhouse in London, Peter Hall at the Royal Shakespeare Company (and later the National Theatre), Jeremy Isaacs at Channel 4 and Peter Brook at the RSC and in Paris.
Kustow was always a cardinal, never a pope except for the period from 1967 to 1970 when he successfully ran the Institute of Contemporary Arts, which moved into its magnificent new home on the Mall, within hailing distance of Buckingham Palace. Even then he was uneasy with his status, worried that he might not catch the new surge of the alternative culture in so palatial a setting. But he did, masterminding, for instance, a fantastic series of plays, events and exhibitions dedicated to the surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and signing out with a memorable fiesta celebrating comic books, entitled AAARGH!
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