Conservative Home makes the ‘arts shouldn’t be funded’ case
The Conservative Home website sparks debate in the comments with its opinions on local authority support for the arts.
Socialists (of all parties) like to caricature the debate about arts subsidies as being pro or anti the arts. The idea that unsubsidised art might by better than the subsidised alternative is a notion not even to be contemplated. If a theatre was not subsidised would it necessarily close? Or would it have to put on plays that the public actually wanted to see? There are plenty of successful unsubsidised theatres.
The critique on arts subsidies by Sir Kingsley Amis from over 30 years ago still applies. He said arts subsidies cause:
"...plays without plots, a canvas entirely covered with black paint offered as a picture, poems that are meaningless patterns of letters - I needn't go on."
Socialists (of all parties) like to caricature the debate about arts subsidies as being pro or anti the arts. The idea that unsubsidised art might by better than the subsidised alternative is a notion not even to be contemplated. If a theatre was not subsidised would it necessarily close? Or would it have to put on plays that the public actually wanted to see? There are plenty of successful unsubsidised theatres.
The critique on arts subsidies by Sir Kingsley Amis from over 30 years ago still applies. He said arts subsidies cause:
"...plays without plots, a canvas entirely covered with black paint offered as a picture, poems that are meaningless patterns of letters - I needn't go on."