Taxpayer helps fund trans artist’s sperm donor show
A TRANSGENDER artist’s show about searching worldwide for a sperm donor has been funded with £64,000 of public money, The Telegraph can reveal.
Krishna Istha’s show First Trimester took place in November last year at London venue Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) as well as Roundhouse and Marlborough Productions.
An Arts Council England (ACE) document shows it provided £64,000 of funding through its National Lottery Project Grant. ACE also separately funds BAC, Roundhouse and Marlborough Productions.
A teaser for First Trimester, now finished at BAC, reads: “This groundbreaking performance offers a rare opportunity to contribute to and witness queer family-making. Embark on a journey with performance artist Krishna Istha as they search for the ‘perfect’ sperm donor.”
Audiences were invited to “to witness live interviews between Krishna and 100s of participants over two weeks, in a quest to find them and their partner a sperm donor”.
Istha, a filmmaker and writer for the show Sex Education, also received £30,000 from Netflix to make a documentary about First Trimester.
As of March, Istha appeared not to have found a sperm donor, having gone to New Zealand and Denmark, and spoken to 166 potential donors across 48 hours, with 42 men offering to donate sperm to Istha and the trangender artist’s partner.
Denise Fahmy, co-director of Freedom in the Arts who won an employment tribunal claim of harassment over her gender critical beliefs, said: “The Arts Council is now under review by government appointee, Dame Mary Archer. When you see projects like this, paid for by National Lottery players with our hard-earned cash, you’ve got to ask yourself, does this really constitute a good cause?”
Lucy Marsh, of the Family Education Trust, said: “It’s horrifying that taxpayers’ money has been spent on a narcissistic individual who is trying to turn pregnancy and childbirth into a vanity project.”
An Arts Council England spokesman said: “First Trimester is an entertaining show that explores questions about what it means to create a family and was originally supported through our National Lottery Project Grants programme.”
Istha was approached for comment.