Admit problem over lack of minority participation in arts, Lib Dems tell ACE

Published Wednesday 7 December 2005 at 13:25 by Alistair Smith

Liberal Democrat spokesman for culture, media and sport Don Foster has attacked Arts Council England’s record on ethnic minorities, following the publication of the organisation’s annual report.

Foster drew attention to figures within ACE’s report, which appear to show that ethnic minority attendance and participation have both fallen over the past four years.

In 2001, the report shows that 15% of black and ethnic minorities were participating in at least two arts events a year. This has now fallen to 11%, far below the arts council’s March 2006 target of 17%. Equally, the record of those attending at least two arts events a year shows the level dropping from 32% to 29%, despite ACE aiming to reach 35%.

The Lib Dem spokesman also took issue with claims in the report by ACE chief executive Peter Hewitt that it was making “real progress” for black and minority ethnic artists.

Foster commented: “It is shocking that instead of taking one step forward, the arts council and Department for Culture, Media and Sport have taken two steps back. If the arts council considers this progress, I would hate to see what failure looks like. The arts council’s increase in grants to ethnic minorities is admirable but it seems this is merely papering over the cracks of a much wider problem. The arts council must acknowledge that there is a problem before they can tackle the problem.”

However, ACE has insisted that the results should not be read as a decline and that the apparent drop in the level relates to a change in the way the figures are measured, which was made by the DCMS following the spending review in 2004.

An ACE spokesperson explained: “There is no evidence of decline. The drop relates to a change in the PSA target set for the Arts Council by the DCMS following SR2004. The criteria for gathering data for our current targets are not the same and so it is extremely difficult to extrapolate from the earlier figures.”

Initially, the results were measured using the definition that someone who participated in or attended the arts had gone to, or taken part in two or more arts events in the previous two months. However, this was later changed so that to qualify the person must have attended or participated in two different types of arts events to register.

So, someone who had attended 100 plays in a year but nothing else would not be counted under the new classification. ACE believes that this has made the targets much tougher both to achieve and to measure before the final results are reported in March 2006.