The Stage

Arts chiefs unite for funding bid

Published Tuesday 13 June 2006 at 12:55 by Alistair Smith

Leading figures from the arts world including National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner, London 2012 arts, culture and education chair Jude Kelly and Royal Opera House chief executive Tony Hall, have joined forces with representatives from the museum, gallery and library sectors for the first time to make a united bid for sustained public funding, as the government’s next spending review approaches.

The unprecedented move has been sparked by what many fear could be a disastrous budgetary round for the arts, with sport expected to take the bulk of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s funding due to the London Olympics in 2012.

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council director Virginia Tandy (from left), former Tate chair Lord Stevenson, Tate director Nicholas Serota, Kelly, Hall and Hytner, joined at the Tate Modern to launch Values and Vision: the Contribution of Culture, a document detailing the impact of arts over the past decade and its potential impression over the next ten years.

Hall explained that the publication was intended to “put culture at the centre of the government’s thinking”, while Hytner added, “our message is not that we’re hard done by, our message is ‘look what happens when you treat us properly.’”

As part of the document, the group claims that with sustained funding it will look to increase public participation in the arts by the adult population to 88% by 2015.