Leila Jankovich says the real surprise is that there is any surprise in the London/regions funding figures and the real question is: what is arts funding for?
A new report on arts funding in England has produced a massive response in the press. There have been articles in all the broadsheets and speedily constructed radio panel debates on the “news” that £69, of government spending in the arts, is spent per head of population in London in comparison with a measly £4.60 per head being spent in the rest of the country. Shocking figures indeed but perhaps for anyone who has studied or worked in the arts and cultural policy sector the real surprise is that there is any surprise in this, either for the press reporting or the respondents commenting. This inequality has been a feature of UK cultural policy since the formation of the Arts Council after the Second World War. The figures are freely available, and despite changing political agendas over many years and varying rates of investment, both up and down, the picture has remained essentially the same.
The reason the report has been launched now and the fact that it is garnering such interest is significant however. DCMS are currently implementing the second wave of its savage cuts on the Arts Council, which saw a 30% reduction in government investment in 2010 with a further 5% cut being implemented as I write. The campaigns to influence how these cuts are implemented are underway, with calls from some to safeguard our national arts institutions; others call for a radical re-evaluation of how the money is distributed. This report is part of this lobbying process.
A new report on arts funding in England has produced a massive response in the press. There have been articles in all the broadsheets and speedily constructed radio panel debates on the “news” that £69, of government spending in the arts, is spent per head of population in London in comparison with a measly £4.60 per head being spent in the rest of the country. Shocking figures indeed but perhaps for anyone who has studied or worked in the arts and cultural policy sector the real surprise is that there is any surprise in this, either for the press reporting or the respondents commenting. This inequality has been a feature of UK cultural policy since the formation of the Arts Council after the Second World War. The figures are freely available, and despite changing political agendas over many years and varying rates of investment, both up and down, the picture has remained essentially the same.
The reason the report has been launched now and the fact that it is garnering such interest is significant however. DCMS are currently implementing the second wave of its savage cuts on the Arts Council, which saw a 30% reduction in government investment in 2010 with a further 5% cut being implemented as I write. The campaigns to influence how these cuts are implemented are underway, with calls from some to safeguard our national arts institutions; others call for a radical re-evaluation of how the money is distributed. This report is part of this lobbying process.