When it comes to arts funding in the UK, its worth reminding ourselves that the various arts councils are not the only ones handing out the money. The local authority yearly spend estimated by nalgao (the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers) to be at least £300,000 per authority in England and Wales makes them a major player in terms of arts provision. The influence of local authorities is clearly huge, but there seems to be a problem. The results of a recent spending survey (p1) by nalgao paint a somewhat bleak picture of spending stasis from local authorities reluctant, or simply unwilling, to accept the value of cultural provision, particularly in the face of both its non-statutory status and rapidly diminishing budgets across-the-board. The decline in arts spending by local authorities, clearly a problem in itself, is further complicated by its lack of visibility, and the slow pace of the erosion. Put plainly: its difficult to see it happening, and it therefore tends to slip unnoticed off the arts lobby agenda.
Compare this to high-octane developments at Arts Council England (ACE), which took a visibly massive hit when its budget was slashed in favour of the Olympics, causing obvious despair at ACE itself, political and media uproar, and real, immediate pain across the sector. In his article on how the worlds of sport and art can, in fact, still be friends (p5), Alex Homfray hopes for positive developments to emerge from the Olympics. In terms of arts funding, however, there is little good to come out of ACEs budget cuts; but at least, in its very visibility, we can see the enemy and the Comprehensive Spending Review notwithstanding know the size and shape of the bad news so far. When it comes to budget cuts at local authority level, the effect is often less spectacular, but potentially just as damaging. Despite the success of local government arts officers in leveraging over £3 from every £1 spent on cultural provision, the drip-drip effect of slowly declining funds, and authority negativity will surely sap the life from those arts officers charged with re-building the wheel every time they work on behalf of the projects that so badly need their support.
Nick Jordan, Editor
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