Am I the only one to find Peter Hewitt?s plea to free the arts from ?damaging levels of accountability? (ArtsProfessional issue 22, March 25) confusing?
As far as I know, every artist, arts organisation and individual to receive funding from the arts funding system has to complete evaluation reports, meet service level agreements and fulfil contractual obligations. These reports, as well as describing how an event or project progresses also include audience/ participant figures, matched funding and income and general responses.This has been going on forever - so what does the system do with all this information? Once approved, it goes into the filing cabinets of the Arts Councils and Regional Arts Boards where it gathers dust.To date, there has been no overall analysis, no statistics, nothing from ACE or the RABs to illustrate the amazing value for money that the subsidised sector delivers for all its government grants.Artists and arts organisations do not need any additional levels of accountability; it is already there. All we need is for bureaucrats in the arts system to start collating and using it.
Published: 08-04-2002