Summer?s coming and municipal arts teams are reaching critical mass on plans for the holiday season. Council tax-payers? money is being eked out to create the kind of big, free event that many of us have come to expect. How many of us really know what it costs?
This kind of event has a lot in common with the Internet economy ? like the information, content and services offered by websites (pp8-10) it?s free at the point of delivery. It?s worth asking, especially in the light of the reduction in business sponsorship available to the arts (p11), where the money comes from.
Supported by Government policy, which sees the arts as an instrument for pursuing social goals, education and regeneration initiatives are pouring huge subsidies into major projects across the country. Are we fostering a culture where public arts provision, like the NHS, has to be free? In a week where tickets to see Madonna in the West End are changing hands at £300 or more, it might be tempting to discern a financial rift between the ?star? culture and the day-to-day arts experience. Do we need to educate the public in the true cost of a rich artistic culture ? or would that be counterproductive to the inclusion agenda that we are encouraged to follow? In a business environment where ?it now seems unthinkable for all but the smallest organisations to be without a website? (p10), spending a wodge of cash, for which a discernible return is difficult to calculate, may require arts organisations to pay a bit more attention to what?s just cheap ? and what has to be free.
Catherine Rose