The Second Front

Arts Council England has acted with amazing speed to announce the 2011/12 grants for its ‘RFOs’ and organisations are getting their heads around how to cope with the pain of the first wave of large but generally manageable hacks to one of their main funding sources.  But this isn’t the end.  It’s not even the beginning of the end.

At Audiences UK we’ve been flagging our fears about Local Government funding for many months.  We weren’t therefore surprised to hear this week that Somerset County Council is signalling a potential 100% cut to its arts budget.  I believe that a vibrant arts and cultural offer is a vital ingredient in creating cohesive and sustainable communities.  However the financial truth at the moment is that Local Government is far more important to culture than culture is to Local Government. 

It’s impossible to accurately compare Arts Council investment with Local Government figures in England because of the way Local Government aggregates the figures for museums with visual art galleries.  In 2007/08, according to DCMS CASE figures, ACE invested around £413m in Lottery and Treasury Funds.  In the same period, the net investment (before Capital Charges) by Local Government in England for Arts Development, Theatres and Public Entertainment was £314m plus a further £160m for museums and galleries. 

So the figures invested nationally and locally are of a comparable scale.  However, as a proportion of the overall net investment by Local Government (what they chose to spend across all services), the average figure is tiny: just 0.6%.  This figure does vary a lot though, with several districts in particular investing 10% or more or their budget in arts and museums, and some (including my own) investing nothing at all.

Councillors will have incredibly tough decisions to make in the coming months to deliver the massive cuts they must make.  In most cases, cutting culture will make next to no financial difference given the scale of the budget (planned cuts in Somerset will save no more than 0.6p per person per week).  But unless the public makes clear how much they value the arts, disproportionate cuts will happen. 

Through the NCA’s I Value the Arts database, people who care about the arts in Somerset are being given practical tips on what to do to get their voice heard.  If you care about the fragile future of cultural life in your area, tell your friends to tell their friends to sign up to www.ivaluethearts.org.uk.

David Brownlee, Chief Executive, Audiences UK