What impact will cuts in arts funding have on London? "Catastrophic", "devastating", or "necessary and inevitable" - we ask those best placed to answer.
The cuts they are a 'coming. With the UK budget deficit at record levels and a Conservative-dominated coalition government in power, funding cuts are now an inevitability. Only last month Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans to abolish the UK Film Council, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and sundry other arts organisations as part of the drive to “increase transparency, accountability and efficiency”.
We're no politicians here at Spoonfed, and we're also not blessed with the ability to see into the future. But we're intrigued (read anxious) to see how these proposals and those that are yet to be announced might affect the dynamic cultural activities that London offers. Who will suffer? Who will prosper? We asked a host of well-placed individuals to give us their expert opinions. The overall view is bleak, but even amidst the gloom, hope may tentatively spring.
Nicholas Hytner
Royal National Theatre
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk
The National Theatre may be able to weather this storm, but I am deeply concerned about the large network of regional, experimental and fringe theatres for whom a 25% cut would be, bluntly, catastrophic.
Dylan Jones
Journalist, author, editor of GQ
www.gq.com
No one encourages cuts where the arts are concerned, but I think in Jeremy Hunt and Ed Vaizey we have two ministers who not only know their territory, but who understand that funding and direction are fundamentally important. Usually ministers can't wait to get away from the arts brief, but in Hunt and Vaizey we have two men who understand and appreciate their jobs.
Colin Tweedy
Chief Executive, Arts & Business
www.artsandbusiness.org.uk
The cuts, if they are as deep as threatened, will have a devastating effect on the arts, as no other source, private or public, can come to the rescue fast enough to stop the damage. However I do believe that in the medium to long term, private sector funds, from sponsorship and philanthropy, will play a crucial role, as the private sector will come out of recession, seeing long term growth, sadly, well before the public sector.
The arts and culture communities should work together, with all interested parties and agencies, to ensure that our collective creative energies are harnessed to develop new models and thinking to guarantee a future that sees growth rather than decay.
Craig Stephens
Associate Director, Stan's Cafe
www.stanscafe.co.uk
The arts are a soft target as people imagine a lot more is spent on arts than actually is. When you do the sums it’s only 17p per person per week, less than the VAT on a bottle of pop. Arts companies tend to be highly efficient, working with a small staff on narrow margins, funding is often used to leaver other income and so any reduction in grants is liable to have disproportionate effects.
The arts world is resourceful and very good at making a lot happen for a little. The worry is that a culture of caution will prevail and a lot of exciting new projects, which break new ground will be shelved and replaced by known pieces from the existing repertoire. This Conservative-Liberal coalition looks set to usher in a less liberal and far more Conservative artistic culture.
David C West & Alex Chappel
Decima Gallery
www.decimagallery.com
Funding cuts usually only affect large institutions which have numerous directors getting paid large salaries. Smaller arts organisations should be exempt from such cuts as it's those where funding is most needed and where all the money goes into the art projects rather than directors' pay and large offices. Generally the best art comes from those smaller organisations who are not clogged up by the corporate red tape.
Hector Proud
Director, Idea Generation
www.ideageneration.co.uk
Given the state of public finances, massive cuts in government spending are clearly necessary and inevitable. My view is that subsidy produces its most valued and valid support the further from the mainstream that it ventures, but my fear is that this will be the sort of support that most is at risk. It’s the support of work that might otherwise struggle to come to light, at least in the short-term, if purely market forces were at play. In terms of the development of new work, this is where the risks are taken – and often where vital mistakes are made and lessons learned. And it’s often where the unexpected discoveries are made. In terms of exhibition and performance, this is where work is taken to places outside of the mainstream, away from the cultural capitals and existing hubs. And this is where new audiences and life-long passions are forged.
Admittedly, there might also be a silver lining – albeit to an oppressively large and dark cloud. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention – and inventive minds put to task might possibly come up with better ways of working. Speaking from experience of running two companies and a gallery through the credit crunch, I know that every aspect of our organisation is running more efficiently – and undoubtedly better – than it was pre-Northern Rock.
Alastair Coe
Director, Kemistry Gallery
www.kemistrygallery.co.uk
Smaller institutions, who don't have the large 'development' teams of the larger cultural institutions may (reluctantly or otherwise) try to use brands for sponsorship to cover costs, either by tying in a product or a brand for a specific exhibition or for leveraging their elusive niche 'cool' that a larger space might not have.
We have an exhibition opening in September called Gastrotypographicalassemblage, which contains a lot of work created for the US television network, CBS. The work is superb and we want to do it justice so I wrote to the president of marketing and told him about the project. He replied with the offer of substantial amount of money that allows us create a really special show. If you don't ask, you don't get. Just ask the right people.
Lack of funding will certainly deter some people from getting their work seen, but there will be people who will push on relentless and we will be all the better for it. For some it will be a driving force.
Cathy Lomax
Director, Transition Gallery
www.transitiongallery.co.uk
Lots of institutions will be struggling – the cuts could be seen as helping to weed out wasteful institutions and practices but I don't really see it like that. Some people like to think that adversity produces better art and I find myself thinking that sometimes. But ultimately I don't believe its true. I think that art patrons like to think of their artists as struggling. Look at the whole outsider art thing – patrons like mad, poor, suffering artists. It's a kind of weird vicarious-ness – you can buy into some bohemia and wallow in the terribleness of the artist's life and then go back to your own good/normal existence. Cuts basically mean that people that don't have privileged backgrounds will not be able to make art.
Alistair Spalding
Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Sadler’s Wells
www.sadlerswells.com
Our plea is for the arts not to be singled out and for the cuts not to be frontloaded. We have in the last ten years developed a UK arts scene that is the envy of many of my international colleagues. We are seen as a place where exciting, innovative, edgy arts events are produced and many of those events will be under threat if the level of cuts promised is implemented.
Reluctantly we may need to review some of the activity we do outside of the conventional theatre space, for example our adventurous ‘Off Site’ works such as this year’s fantastically successful Electric Hotel.
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