The Stage

Davey urges Whitehall to maintain spending on arts

Published Tuesday 4 November 2008 at 16:05 by Lalayn Baluch

Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey has warned that the current economic climate could see the industry plunged into a “spiral of decline” if the government does not keep up its investment in the culture sector.

Delivering a lecture at the Royal Society of Arts, Davey called on culture secretary Andy Burnham to show “courage, leadership and principle” in fighting the case for the arts, and urged Whitehall to “be bold and not to retreat”, in order to keep public spending strong and maintain the confidence of private sector funders and audiences.

Davey, former head of culture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, said: “We know from previous hard times that if standards of aspiration and ambition fall, audiences don’t engage and organisations fall into a spiral of decline, it is then very expensive to escape. We will look to see how, within what we have, we can fund extra ambition.

“My message to politicians - keep up the spending on the arts and do so with confidence and purpose. Include us in any schemes to expand or bring forward public expenditure or to help those engaged in cultural enterprise. Be imaginative, engage with us.”

In his speech, Davey also addressed points raised in Brian McMaster’s report on excellence in the arts, which recommended that the industry moves towards a new investment model based on peer review and self-assessment. The report also advocated that ten of the country’s most innovative companies be given ten-year funding settlements.

Davey said that ACE is looking to reform the way its regularly funded organisations are subsidised - a move which would include “loosening” the three-year cycle, to give companies longer or shorter-term arrangements depending on their needs.

He also launched a consultation on peer review and self-assessment, which will enable artists, arts organisations and local authorities to submit views on how the new system should work. Along with written responses, over the next two months ACE will hold three meetings in London, Birmingham and Manchester, for arts sector bodies.

“What I take from the McMaster report is clear, that all of us involved in the arts will need courage, boldness and ambition. To do that, we’ll need knowledge - and not just from the arts council. We’ll need the help of practitioners and audiences,” he said.

“This consultation will stimulate debate about how we can establish a community of constructive criticism among the arts, that recognises where things don’t work and encourages us to strive for what the arts can uniquely do. We need to ensure that artistic judgement is at the heart of our decision-making.”

The consultation will end on January 23 and the results will help shape a pilot self-assessment programme later next year. It is hoped that the new process will be in operation from April 2010.

Meanwhile, at the RSA event, Davey unveiled a new company called Creativity, Culture and Education, which will assume responsibility for ACE’s schools-based Creative Partnerships programme - a scheme that has to date involved 75,000 children and 2,000 schools across England.

Between April 2009 and March 2011, the organisation will receive more than £75 million from the arts council - the largest single grant in that funding period. It will be based in Newcastle and create at least 25 jobs.

The arts council chief also revealed that he wants to develop links with the BBC and other public service broadcasters in order to expand its involvement in digital technologies and help make the arts more accessible to audiences.