I get quite a few e-mail bulletins and APe-mail is my favourite because of Catherine Rose?s acute eye and sense of humour.
I also tend to share her opinions but I have to disagree with a throwaway line in issue 20 (APe-mail, October 29) in a section when she asks ?But what?s the alternative [to state funding]? The private funding lauded by admirers of the American system is heavily reliant on personal likes, personal solvency and ?respectability? in its narrowest sense.?
Oh really? The assertion that private donations are made only to ?respectable? arts activities doesn?t stand up to a moment?s scrutiny. True, respectable donors choose to fund respectable arts, but many of our most imaginative and passionate artists, past and present, have been funded by private donors. And the idea that the state (in whatever form) will always fund more radical art (however you define radical) is equally untrue. The ?arm?s length? principle of the Arts Council works pretty well, but state funding usually comes with strings - that?s why large parts of the Arts Council of England?s current funding comes packaged with an obviously Blairite social agenda. I happen to agree with the agenda, but the strings are real and it?s the Government which is pulling them. Corporate sponsors? They really do tend towards the respectable (with some notable exceptions) and the strings are written into binding contracts.
So if all funding comes with the expectations of the donor attached, what?s the answer? The only way to be truly independent is to have as good a mix of funding as possible, including earned income, private donations (from a wide range of donors), sponsorship and state grants. Standing on only one leg tugging your forelock is not a very stable position.
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