Arts: The week in the arts

Gillian Wearing is one of the nicer Turner prize winners, chatting affably and openly about her "video art" at the prize dinner last Tuesday until the moment I raised the question of her most famous video - 60 Minutes Silence consists of a group of policemen standing motionless for the best part of an hour until the odd one shuffles, another twitches, a third lets rip a cathartic shriek. Were they real policemen, I asked? Ms Wearing became coy and stuttered. We'll take that as a no, then. The Tate press office will neither confirm nor deny that the subjects may not actually be policemen, nor will Ms Wearing's dealer. Why all the evasion over a prize-winning work of art? Could it be the judges comment publicised by the Tate that "her work reveals the often strange or disturbing realities that lie beneath the apparently calm surface of everyday appearances. It also offers a rich insight into the lives of ordinary people." Is it still an insight into contemporary living if the people are acting a role? Definitely, says Virginia Button, Turner Prize historian and assistant keeper in the Modern Collection at the Tate. "The insights still hold good." That has to be taking art criticism on to another planet.

Some of the talk at the Turner Prize dinner was that two artists had turned down invitations to be on the shortlist. Julian Opie, who has an installation at Heathrow Airport, was one. Perhaps the reason artists give up the chance of pounds 20,000 and national glory is fear of having their work analysed by contemporary art experts.

Some slogans adopted by the campaign for free admissions to museums could do with a bit of spin doctoring. BECTU has put out a leaflet with a plea by artist Anthony Gormley: "I feel passionately that museums should be free - the only way both art and life can meaningfully interact without let or hindrance. It is not a commercial relationship. One should go to museums as often as one goes to the supermarket, to recharge your imagination larder." Not the greatest analogy. Man and supermarket do have a commercial relationship. You pay to sample the wares.

Meanwhile, different attitudes are evident north of the border. I visited the Museum of Scotland currently being built in Edinburgh to show Scotland's history. The museum opens in a year's time and the views from the top over Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside are spectacular. The different attitudes to museum charges come in the appeal to raise money for the building. Some donors have said they will only give money if charges are imposed. At least one of these is a well-known celebrity. I am not allowed to divulge his name. Even though I've started, I cannot finish...