Notes on funding cuts, and 'why the arts matter'

With a joint constituency of at least 60,000 individual professionals, galleries, public collections, studio groups, visual art businesses, organisations and producing agencies VAGA and eleven fellow representative bodies have written to the Secretary of State, pointing out the finely tuned ecology of the visual arts and urging him to consider carefully the timing and scale of the cuts.

Click to read the letter from the VAGA website.

Quote from the Axis website:

Philanthropy, we are told, is the answer. Well, maybe it will work for the Royal Opera House, which last year raised no less than £17m in charitable income through donations, legacies and other sources. But there are no philanthropists waiting in the wings to fund the regional arts infrastructure on which so many artists depend.

What can we do to avert these reckless cuts or, at any rate, to mitigate their worst effects?

We can put pressure on MPs to lobby on our behalf, for there are many, even within the coalition government, who are privately concerned about the speed and scale of the cuts that are being proposed.

We can also respond to the DCMS consultation about lottery shares which closes on 21st August 2010 [link]. In theory lottery funding will flow back into the arts sector once the Olympics are over, but only if the consultation currently underway makes a compelling case for this to happen.

Arts Council England has developed an advocacy toolkit which marshalls factual evidence about the importance of the arts to the economy, society and the individual...[LINK - "Why the arts matter!!"]

Inevitably, however, these arguments focus on the big picture and institutions, rather than individual art forms and practitioners. One of the most remarkable achievements of the last 15-20 years has been the groundswell of artist-led activity in many parts of the UK and the concomitant growth of independent production outside mainstream organisations. Without this vital test-bed of activity, it is hard to know where future experimentation and innovation will come from.