I value the arts

Tough decisions are being made about public spending. If you value the arts in your community, you need to make your voice heard. Show the decision-makers that the arts are vital and valued. Pledge your support, visit www.ivaluethearts.org.uk and follow us on twitter.com/ivaluethearts

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MANIFESTO

We believe that great art needs great audiences, and that's why our Manifesto outlines our key messages for funders, policy-makers and the sector in England and the evidence behind those views. You can download our Manifesto here.

[Art] helps me understand the times I’m living in. It helps me see other perspectives. It makes me feel less alone. It makes me feel more human.
It connects me more to the rest of humanity.

The Arts Debate, Arts Council England 2007

Two Things to Remember in Tough Times

2nd July 2010

I love the arts. I care passionately about their future. I wouldn’t be working in this sector if I didn’t. 

But as the enormity of the challenges ahead begins to really sink in, I think there is an alarming rhetoric emerging around slogans such as ‘protecting the art’. Of course we must protect the art. Of course ‘without the artist, there is no art’. But if we are going to make it through this period of financial misery without destroying the infrastructure we’ve got, we need to get beyond vacuous rallying cries and focus on two boring but fundamental facts:
1)      The biggest funders of the arts are currently audiences, not the government. 
2)      Arts organisations are businesses and need to be run efficiently
Funders and policy makers who really understand the sector know that if you focus on the customer and run your business effectively, the stability gives a great platform to allow artists to produce great art. If your organisation is in a state of chaos and you are not reaching and resonating with your audience, your focus will be on crisis management, not on innovation and excellence.
If cultural policy is driven by sound bite in the coming years, the arts are doomed. Sometimes leadership is about stressing the mundane essentials, not playing to the galleries. Now is one of those times.
David Brownlee, Chief Executive, Audiences UK

Comments

  1. Author
    Roger Tomlinson
    Permanent link
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    Date
    2nd July 2010
    Comment
    Could not agree more. Subsidy should not be necessary because of inefficiency or 'market failure' in the sense of not attracting the interest of enough of the public. ACW cutting Audiences Wales despite the huge benefit it has brought since the Cardiff Arts Marketing days is "cutting off your nose to spite your face". We know collaborative arts marketing works, is cost effective, and builds audiences. If the government ultimately believes private and corporate philanthropy is the answer for arts funding, then now is the time to concentrate on building relationships with audiences. Artists in empty houses attract neither sponsors or donors.
    Roger

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