“London’s arts and cultural organisations… do a great job at fundraising, but they can’t be expected to defy the laws of economic gravity in a prolonged downturn”, said Mayor of London Boris Johnson at the launch of London’s new cultural strategy. ‘Cultural Metropolis’ was published officially last week, following months of public consultation (AP220). Speaking at the launch, Johnson stressed the importance of the arts, calling on government and private industry to continue to support London’s arts infrastructure. In a move that would seem to be at odds with current government thinking, Johnson’s office stated that “there is only so much philanthropy the sector can rely on and… we simply cannot sit back and expect private sponsorship to expand exponentially to plug funding shortfalls”. Johnson said: “Investment comes from a mixture of private and public sources, and we need both to continue.”