The arts: what happens beyond the spending cuts?

Leading figures gather to discuss life after the cuts and to make the case for public investment in the arts

It's fair to say that a lot of people in the arts wonder what the Government's long term policy on the subject actually is.

There are spending cuts of course - the 29.6% to Arts Council England, the 15% to national museums and galleries, the sometimes 100% cuts being implemented by local authorities. There are the scrapping of quangoes like the UK Film Council and adding on their responsibilties to other organisations - in this case the BFI. And there is the very well expressed government belief that more can be done to encourage philanthropic giving to the arts.

But what happens beyond the cuts? What landscape is hoped for?

Artists and arts leaders themselves are going to address these questions with an event being hosted by the Young Vic on 25 March.

There is an impressive list of co-hosts: the Young Vic's artistic director David Lan as well as Michael Boyd, Richard Eyre, Shreela Ghosh, Tony Hall, Jude Kelly, Akram Khan, Judith Knight, Richard Mantle, Sandy Nairne, Anthony Sargent, Charles Saumarez Smith, Jenny Sealey, Alistair Spalding, Gavin Stride, Kenneth Tharp and David Whelton.

Lan said:

"Many of us are concerned that, more and more, culture in this country is coming to be valued principally for its potential contribution to the economy. This is, certainly, one of its values. But we are afraid that an essential value of art, a means by which people and societies achieve their full human potential, is in danger of being treated as a side effect.
"We understand that, in the short term, cuts to public investment in the arts are inevitable. The meeting we are calling is not intended to contest that. We are however concerned that if we do not collectively make a forceful and articulate case for public investment in the arts, those in control of future spending rounds may assume that we believe 2011 to 2013 levels of funding to be adequate. We feel it is urgent to raise these ideas with colleagues working across the arts and, together, to communicate our feelings about the future to government."

Before then a website is being launched to generate wider public discussion.

It's at www.whatnextarts.com

• Arts funding
• Public sector cuts

Mark Brown

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/culture-cuts-blog/2011/mar/11/arts-funding-public-sector-cuts

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