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Arts Council Englands (ACE) new focus on digital distribution has the potential to transform the way people engage with the arts and, perhaps, the way politicians perceive arts funders. At a time when Whitehall cogs whirr and click to calculate the spending allocation for the arts, being seen as both cutting edge and visibly engaged with increasing access is no bad thing. The arts sector is bracing itself for a tough settlement from this summers Comprehensive Spending Review, with the best-case scenario widely expected to be an inflation-linked 3% increase in funding. Whatever the settlement, there wont be much money around from next year.
Obviously ACEs new policy documents, including the distribution policy, are painted in broad brush strokes. The trouble is, the lack of detail means that the reader gets no real sense of who is going to pay for the brave new technological world. ACE claims that a fresh focus on technology will not draw money away from its support for traditional artforms, but it has to cost something. Put crudely, money spent on making art accessible online will not be spent on making art. And the one thing we know about online projects is that they are not cheap. The first two years of the Department for Culture, Media and Sports Culture Online project saw some 20 projects developed at a cost of £13m (roughly the same amount that ACE will get if it receives that best-case, inflation-linked increase from the DCMS this summer.) There is talk of partnerships with the commercial sector but unless there is a commercial benefit for these partners, it is unlikely that they will be queuing up to invest in new ways to experience opera.

Christopher Frayling claims the new policy documents are the envelope in which decisions are going to be taken its down to ACE to provide some substance to these plans now, and prove that they werent drawn up on the back of that very envelope.

Liz Hill and Brian Whitehead
Co-editors

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