Serota warns of political interference in arts if ACE is abolished

Arts Council England (ACE) chair Nicholas Serota has defended the continued existence of the organisation following the announcement that all quangos across government will be considered for closure.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Serota said ACE’s role is vital to avoid political interference and protect “liberty of thought”.

He added that the arms-length body acts as a “buffer” between artists and government, pointing towards the USA, where President Donald Trump is cracking down on projects that can receive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, as an example of where direct funding can be withdrawn with a change of government.

ACE is currently subject to a review led by Dame Margaret Hodge looking at the role the funding body plays in the wider arts and culture ecosystem – a review that was initiated by the previous Conservative government.

But under plans announced by the Cabinet Office earlier this month, government departments have been asked to justify every quango they are responsible for otherwise they’ll be closed, merged, or have powers brought back into the department.

Serota said he expects Hodge’s review of ACE, which is now underway, to be “tough but fair” and said that the “strengths of the [current] British system” meant individual politicians could not influence which organisations received funding in the same way as in the US. 

Tax breaks

In the same interview, Serota called on the government to use the upcoming Spending Review as an “opportunity to raise Britain’s cultural profile”.

He also suggested the UK looks toward France and begins to offer tax breaks to businesses that sponsor arts venues. 

France’s Aillagon law offers 60% tax relief on donations capped at 0.5% of a company’s annual turnover.  “Given our rates of corporation tax, it would be a powerful incentive to companies,” Serota said, before adding that the UK had not “played its soft power anything like as strongly as it could” in recent years.

Serota also acknowledged that ACE needed to “build trust” with the sector, while also revealing the funding body was preparing to ease paperwork for grant holders.

When asked if ACE engages well enough with the sector, Serota said the organisation does listen “but you can never listen enough”.

“A really effective Arts Council would be seen by organisations as their voice, and there are times when we’re not sufficiently in tune with their concerns,” the chairman said.

“I’m not saying the Arts Council always gets it right …but I don’t think it has lost its appetite for advocacy.” 

‘Negative voices’

Speaking separately to The Guardian, ACE chief executive Darren Henley said that while there are groups that are “very passionate” about the work of the organisation, it can be the case that “negative voices shout louder than positive voices”.

Henley’s comment follow Wigmore Hall’s decision to leave ACE’s National Portfolio next year after raising enough from private donors to free itself from what it called the funder’s “onerous” requirements.

At the time of the announcement, the concert hall’s artistic director, John Gilhooly, said accounting for ACE grant spending took up “a huge amount” of the attention of trustees and staff, who he added were not the “hugest fans” of ACE’s Let’s Create strategy.

“I absolutely respect people who have a view that says we’re doing something that isn’t for their liking or their taste,” Henley said in response. “That’s perfectly reasonable for a public body to be challenged that way… but there are lots and lots of people who I meet who say something different.”

‘London-centric’ media coverage

Henley also said he believes ACE has been a victim of London-centric media coverage.

He told The Guardian that London-based arts leaders are able to get newspaper coverage far easier than regional arts leaders in areas where funding has been redistributed to.

“There’s a power dynamic there…there’s a sort of imbalance,” Henley said. “Maybe the role I have to play when I’m sitting in the corridors of power in London is to be representative of all those places who don’t have a seat at that table.”

London currently receives around one third of ACE national portfolio funding, down from 41% in the previous portfolio.

In his interview with the Financial Times, Serota added that while ACE wanted “access to the best in places that haven’t previously had it”, he warned that there is “a limit to how much you can take out [of London] and expect the whole ecology to continue to function”.