The Stage

Martin Smith calls for ‘Office of Cultural Economics’

Published Monday 2 August 2010 at 15:58 by Alistair Smith

Former Young Vic Theatre chairman Martin Smith has called for the creation of a new ‘Office of Cultural Economics’ to help the arts better make their case to government for sustained public funding.

Smith, who is now managing director of West Bridge Consulting and a policy advisor to Ingenious Media, has set out a number of proposals for the sector in a new essay entitled Arts Funding in a Cooler Climate.

The report claims that, because of weak evidence, the sector currently has no reliable basis to measure the impact that arts subsidy has on the UK’s wider economy.

According to Smith: “The evidence base that underpins policy making in the arts and culture sector, and the wider creative economy, is generally poor. This reflects a historic lack of interest in the economics of culture in the UK. Given the scale of the contribution of the sector to the nation’s economic life (however measured), and its vulnerability to international competitive forces, this is a public policy weakness that requires specific and urgent remedy. An Office of Cultural Economics should be established with a remit to help provide this.”

According to Smith, the Office of Cultural Economics should be given a five-year remit to find links between the subsidised and commercial areas of the creative economy and should be located in a university or business school to secure its independence from government.

Meanwhile, in the report, Smith also claims that if the current government cuts the arts too fast and too hard at the forthcoming spending review, it could undermine the operational effectiveness of the cultural sector.

He adds:”I believe strongly that more should be expected of the public pound in terms of its capacity for drawing in private money. Private philanthropy can and should, as ministers have recently suggested, contribute more to the funding mix. But the balance between public and private money in our system is an exceptionally delicate one. Corporate and private investors want to be associated with box-office and critical success. Such success flows from innovation ‚Äì the constant experimentation with new work that only public funders will generally support.

“If public funding is hacked back too far there will be no innovation or new work and therefore no stream of critical successes for private investors to back.”

The full report is available at www.artsandbusiness.org.uk