There’s a tension between accessibility and dilution that the arts world has long struggled to define. This month’s Limelight tunes into the artists and organisations navigating that tension – sometimes joyfully, sometimes with difficulty – as they seek new audiences and fresh relevance.

Perhaps no story better captures that tension than that of Eddy Chen and Brett Yang, the irreverent duo better known as TwoSet Violin. Through their viral YouTube sketches, in-jokes and affectionate satire, the pair have introduced millions of young viewers to classical music – many for the first time. But can comedy memes really coexist with serious musicianship?

The answer, as violist and writer Katie Yap discovers, is an emphatic yes. Beneath Chen and Yang’s freewheeling image lies classical discipline, deep musical knowledge and an almost evangelical zeal for the artform.

If some artists are finding new ways to connect, others are confronting an increasingly nervous cultural climate. In The Cost of Controversy, Samuel Cairnduff examines what political pressure, fragile leadership and precarious funding models mean for Australian arts organisations. The questions raised are uncomfortable but necessary. What happens when institutions become fearful of offence, backlash or donor anxiety? How much courage can organisations...