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The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has mapped out its plans for the next five years in a document called Living Life to the Full. Widely seen as New Labour?s effective culture manifesto, the glossy 58 page document sets down Tessa Jowell?s vision of ?making quality of life in this country world class, and giving everyone the chance to taste it?. Specific proposals include the establishment of a £6m Quality and Innovation Fund to support new work and new audiences and a Creative Sparks programme designed to promote artistic activity in school-age children.
The five year plan was launched just days before the announcement of the forthcoming general election. The plan is made up of ten commitments including a review of Lottery spending and the introduction of incentives for local authorities to improve culture and leisure services. Cash which was already assigned to the DCMS in the 2004 Spending Review, will be used to establish a Quality and Innovation Fund to support initiatives to encourage family attendance at arts events and increase community participation in the arts. Among the examples cited by the DCMS are reduced price theatre seasons and ?sleep-over? events for children in museums. The Fund will be activated in 2007 and decisions on applications will be made by a ?Star Chamber of experts from the arts and culture sector?. The Creative Sparks initiative, which amounts to a series of pledges, does not have any funding attached to it. Its overarching commitment is that ?within the next ten years, no child will leave school without having had access to high quality arts and culture?.

Meanwhile, the Tories have launched their arts manifesto with a pledge to ?place a greater emphasis on the cultural value of the arts?. With a proposal to abolish the Big Lottery Fund and ?drastically reduce Arts Council and DCMS bureaucracy?, the Conservatives claim significant additional revenue will be released to be spent on the arts. Other proposals include rejecting the European directive designed to ensure artists receive percentage payments for resale of their work and tackling the Lottery?s provision of ?politically correct grant awards?. Shadow Arts Minister, Hugo Swire, said, ?This manifesto shows the Conservative commitment to the arts and heritage. We have thought carefully about how to release more funds to the frontline by reducing bureaucracy and political meddling, whilst at the same time achieving best value for money for the taxpayer.?

The Liberal Democrats? plans for the arts include reversing the freeze on funding to Arts Council England and axing Government directed schemes such as Creative Partnerships. The party also promises to establish a ministerial level committee to promote the creative industries and ?ensure their huge importance is acknowledged across government?. Don Foster, the party?s shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary said, ?We believe art and culture should sometimes ruffle feathers, challenge the status quo and make us all, and politicians in particular, feel uncomfortable at times. But under Labour, we?ve seen excessive Government interference in the arts. We oppose the way this Government has chipped away at the principle of keeping cultural organisations at arm?s length?.