The Stage

Arts need ‘urgent’ reassurance of funding in credit crunch

Published Wednesday 21 January 2009 at 13:40 by Lalayn Baluch

Arts industry chiefs are seeking urgent reassurance that culture secretary Andy Burnham will fight to maintain the current level of government spending, which is being threatened by the global financial meltdown.

Leading names, including National Campaign for the Arts director Louise de Winter, Equity general secretary Christine Payne, Independent Theatre Council chief executive Charlotte Jones and Theatrical Management Association principal officer Kathleen Hamilton, have written a joint letter to Burnham seeking a meeting “as a matter of urgency” to discuss the challenges facing the sector in the year ahead.

The correspondence comes in response to The Stage’s exclusive interview with the culture secretary earlier this month, in which he revealed that subsidised organisations were not “immune” from a government savings drive, and that despite funding levels being set until 2010/11, they could face cuts in the third and final year of the settlement.

The letter said: “[We] seek your support to ensure that government retains funding for the arts at its current levels for the foreseeable future. We are acutely aware of the pressure that recession puts on all parties. It is vital, however, that access to culture and the arts is not seen as expendable.

“The arts budget is a comparatively small amount of government expenditure, yet the benefits it brings to people’s lives are immense. Continuing to invest in culture would have a wider implication for policy across Britain to improve regeneration, education, skills and new economy.”

Other signatories include the Association of British Orchestras, Bectu, Dance UK, Musicians’ Union, Theatres Trust, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and Visual Arts and Galleries Association.

Similar correspondence was sent to Conservative shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and Liberal Democrat shadow culture secretary Don Foster.

The letter to Hunt asked the Conservatives to retain the current levels of funding should they form the next government. It also revealed that industry members were “understandably confused and rightly concerned” by the party’s mixed messages about the arts.

It said: “We were alarmed to note the statement from David Cameron that, in the event of a Conservative government, all budgets apart from schools, the NHS, international development and defence be cut.

“Yet Ed Vaizey has also recently been quoted as saying that not only will arts funding not decrease, but that spending will improve under a Conservative government.”

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats were urged to discuss their ideas for the culture budget and to find an “intelligent and resourceful approach” to the economic challenges.