Unions launch 'Lost Arts' website to record in detail everything we're losing because of the arts cuts
A very good thing, the Lost Arts website, was launched on Thursday in Westminster with the aim of of recording all the organisations, initiatives, projects, commissions, tours and more that will be lost due to cuts in public spending on the arts.
The initiative is a collaboration between eight unions: the Musicians' Union (MU), Equity, The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, the NUJ, Bectu, Unite, Prospect and PCS.
The shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis said the campaign marked the end of too much silence from people in the arts and culture community. John Smith of the Musicians' Union, who is also president of the Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU), said the cuts defied logic, given the money generated by the arts sector. The actor Maggie Steed, speaking for Equity, talked about the arts sector coming under unprecedented attack.
The website is encouraging people to add cuts you about. Don't forget you can also take part in the Guardian's Cutswatch project here.
Here are some extracts from the speeches. Long ones, I grant you, but worth reading.
Smith (FEU) said:
"I do not intend listing the cuts that have already been imposed as a result of the short-sighted ideologically driven policies of the Tory-led coalition. But it's going to be a while before we can assess their full impact, as we know Arts Council England has announced its 3-year plan which becomes operative next year. However, the full impact of the cuts in local authority funding is still far from clear. Just recently Arts Development UK released the results of a survey which demonstrated that the average local authority's arts & culture budget has already fallen by 38% since 2008, 93% of local arts services are expecting severe cuts next year with 10% of them expecting closure. Add this to the Arts Council cuts and we can see that we are in a sorry place indeed.
"But all of this defies logic; we know that we work in one of the truly successful areas of the UK economy. A study by Arts and Business has demonstrated that for every pound that's spent on culture more than two pounds is returned as, what economists call, Gross Added Value to the Economy
"We've got to get away from the use of language and the discourse that surrounds this subject. Central and local governments don't subsidise the arts – they invest in a successful revenue generating industry.
"The trade union movement faces one of its biggest challenges at the moment. We know what is happening across the public sector – attacks on education, attacks on the pay of already low paid public service workers, and attacks on their pensions. The attack on arts and culture is slightly different, on the one hand we're told how valuable we are – how we drive tourism, how we make the world a better place, but at the same time we're told that we have to pay our way, so the very essence and fabric that the cultural sector is built on is been undermined and could be terminally damaged. This is not just about jobs and falls in standards of living of our members. This is an attack on our civilisation itself, turning the clock back so that arts and cultural become the preserve of the rich elite – back to the 18th century when authors, composers, painters, actors and musicians were treated as no more than servants.
"But we will fight back. And today we launch a joint union campaign that bears the title of this rally - Lost Arts. When we get to the end of this three-year funding period we can be pretty sure that we won't get the money that's been cut back. So we will have to be in a position to remind the public just what this nation has lost, and we'll spell it out company by company, orchestra by orchestra, museum by museum.
"The Lost Arts website will be live for the three-year period; it will catalogue everything that we've suffered; everything that's been lost – every regional tour, every exhibition, every education and community project, every commission of a new work and every new production. But you and your colleagues must play your part. The website will need constant updating which means that when you next hear of a cut – however small – you log it. With your help we will grow an incredible and irrefutable record of what affect these savage and brutal cuts have had."
Ivan Lewis said this of the campaign:
"It signals the end of a period of silence from too many in the art and culture sector who have acquiesced to a narrative which says in an age of austerity at a time when the NHS, Education and policing face cuts the arts have no right to a voice.
"If that is the case we lose the right to feel passionately about the way culture transforms individuals' lives, creates jobs and growth for our economy, has been at the heart of transforming many of our towns and cities and brings communities together.
"I am immensely proud of Labour's record in Government on arts policy and funding. But I would never suggest that under Labour there would have been no cuts.
"There would have been because our top national priority has to be to reduce the deficit alongside a credible plan for jobs and growth. But we would have done it differently. The cuts being imposed by this Conservative Led Government are too fast and too deep. They are disproportionate when you consider the combined impact of a 30% cut to the Arts Council budget, severe frontloaded local Government cuts and the abolition of the Regional development agencies. They take no account of the commercial gain which frequently flows from public investment in the arts.
"Simultaneously, we have the attack on arts and humanities degrees in Higher Education, the scrapping of school based creative partnerships and the squeezing out of art and creativity as part of Michael Gove's ideologically driven re-engineering of our education system. At a time when the future success of UK PLC in a competitive global economy and the desire to have excellent public services means we will need creative workers, managers and leaders more than ever before. This vision for our education system is ill conceived and damaging to our long term national interest.
"So the Government's disproportionate cuts and backward looking view of education are wrong but equally Jeremy Hunt has no vision for the future of art and culture. He has sought to remain above the fray leaving others such as the Arts Council to take responsibility for ministerial cuts. What is their commitment to access, participation and excellence? Where does the balance of their priorities lie? Why have they failed so dismally to make the case for the arts with their colleagues in DFE, CLG, BiS and the Treasury? What are they doing to support the export of our culture across the world?
"For the three years prior to the election they made strenuous efforts to persuade the arts world their party had changed in relation to public investment. After only a year it is clear that was a con and it's the same old Tories. Disproportionate cuts coupled with a claim that philanthropy and the national lottery will plug the gap. The extra income from the lottery is a drop in the ocean relative to the scale of the cuts and while we welcome measures to incentivise philanthropy Jeremy Hunt has conceded it will take a generation to achieve a step change in giving. As for the Lib Dems they are a silent partner when it comes to the arts.
"Finally, I urge this campaign to use language and stories which not only preach to the converted but win the hearts and minds of the public and commentators.
"Government funding for the arts is not subsidy but investment. Relatively small amounts of seedcorn funding have fuelled major commercial successes such as Enron, Jerusalem and Warhorse. Our creative industries have been a great UK PLC success story.
"Many of our great actors and artists started their careers in publically funded projects. Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Gateshead and Newcastle have been regenerated through art and cultural investment.
"For so many of our young people the arts are the catalyst for their talent, ambition and dreams. For many people with mental health problems art has helped improve their state of mind. Witness the impact of art and music on older dementia sufferers and their carers. People feel passionately about our great national institutions but also their local theatres, galleries, festivals and community projects.
"Let us use this campaign to mobilise support not simply as a vehicle for protest but as a catalyst for the ideas, vision and passion which can transform public discourse about the importance of the arts to the social and economic renewal of our country."
The acor Maggie Steed said this:
"It is right and proper and very timely for us to make a stand collectively against this unprecedented attack on arts and culture funding.
"The problems we face are coming from so many different angles. We've already witnessed huge central government cuts to the Arts Council, museums, libraries and the BBC. And many of us have been fighting shocking reductions in local authority funding for regional theatres, music services and orchestras across the country. Sadly, I fear, the worst is to come.
"Earlier we heard from John about the purpose of Lost Arts. The website launched today will serve as a vital evidence base as we seek to educate the general public, politicians and policy makers not just about the crisis faced by our sector but also about the real economic and social benefits of the arts.
"Over the next three years it is our responsibility to work together to get the Government to realise its mistake: Arts and culture funding is not a sunk cost, it's a savvy investment. Lost Arts is very modest about the impact that art can make on the economy. The calculations on the website use the widely accepted formula that £1 invested in the arts and culture leverages £2 from elsewhere.
"However, if you ask local authority arts officers and bodies like Arts Development UK they will tell you that investment in the arts can bring in a return of 6 to 1. Not bad. The economic argument for cultural subsidy is easy and obvious. You'd think that a Cabinet full of clever graduates and millionaires would be able to grasp it. Apparently not. It begs the question – are these cuts simply ideological?
"If we are going to win this, we need to take our campaign to our audience members and our communities. We need to build a strong and united voice to resist job cuts and closures wherever they happen. We must involve all those politicians who will listen and talk to us, all those organisations under pressure and our students and young people hoping to one day get a decent job in our wonderful creative industries. I believe this kind of relationship is what a true Coalition should be. Let's work together to show that such a thing can bring a positive outcome.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/culture-cuts-blog/2011/jun/15/arts-funding-public-sector-cuts?INTCMP=SRCH
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