Leading edge

It’s interesting to speculate whether the drive to train new leaders in the cultural sector has fuelled dissatisfaction with the way the arts are currently led. The structures and practices of arts policy making, development and funding have come increasingly into question, coming to a head in England with the funding review row last winter. Upheavals in Scotland, with the move towards Creative Scotland and the reorganisation of funding for the large national organisations, have had a similar effect (AP178). Similarly, Geraint Talfan Davies has raised questions over Wales’s commitment to the arm’s length principle (AP170 and AP171). It is clear – and it has been a frequent theme of this editorial column – that the way the arts sector has been organised in the past is being broken down by a gradual process of change, compulsion and innovation. The move of arts sector umbrella bodies, under the ERA21 banner, to take control back into the hands of the sector itself is welcome (p1). In an era of financial uncertainty, when we are being urged to diversify funding and enter new partnerships, such a radical move should not surprise the powers that be. However, it remains to be seen whether it will be welcomed, because of the current strong link, maintained by governments and arts councils, between control of artistic product and practice on the one hand and development of the creative economy on the other. Similarly, Tim Joss’s brilliantly simple idea to give the origination and dissemination of the arts their separate spaces for development and funding could enable the untangling of the confusion and create a new understanding (p5). It would enable politicians, arts developers and funders to distinguish between where they could and should bring their influence to bear, and where they should simply support and nurture. The place of the arts in our economy is now recognised, but it needs to be disentangled from the ‘excellence agenda’. The intention of Arts Council England to deploy its Regularly Funded Organisations to carry out projects which support and promote its policies has become ever clearer. Many have been looking for a way to combat this encroachment without alienating the arts sector’s most significant financial supporters and advocates. Perhaps the time has come.