Economy: Culture and the Arts

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury]

My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, for initiating this debate. I also declare an interest as a trustee of the Lowry.

Last week, I chaired an IPT breakfast meeting where the topic was the role of the arts in the 21st century. It was attended by people from across the sector and the political divides, but consensus soon broke out that there is an urgent need to marshal all the arguments that prove the sector’s worth and that too many people have too fragmented a view of what investment in this area provides. As someone from the Arts Council put it,

“we need to have a clear sense of the true value of the arts and cultural industries, and ensure that this value is properly woven into government policy”.

Against the backdrop of the present spending review this could not be more important.

As a country, we have always been blessed with a wealth of creative talents, which have shaped and illuminated our history and national identity. This creativity has also spawned industries that are a significant contributor to our economy. The creative industries come from ideas, innovation and imagination, inspired and fed by the rich tapestry of British culture and the arts. Our creative industries are crucial in contributing to today’s global economy, where capital and labour are mobile and goods and services can be produced almost anywhere. This was evident on a recent trip I made to Guadalajara as the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Mexico. It has been designated a digital creative city, focusing on attracting companies that produce video games, movies, multimedia and mobile applications, which are all areas in which we excel.

At home, the economic contribution of the arts and cultural sector has grown since 2008, unlike the UK economy as a whole. Our film industry is an example, as the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, mentioned. The UK is the world’s greatest market for music consumers. We produce more than a quarter of the world’s computer games, while nearly half the world’s top 100 computer games companies are based in the UK.

Support for culture and the arts also feeds through into the economy at regional level, so it is of great concern that in certain parts of the country disproportionate cuts are being inflicted by local government. It is also short-sighted; recent LGA and Arts Council research shows that putting money into culture is an investment rather than a simple subsidy, in that it revitalises local economies and regenerates neighbourhoods. The idea behind the Lowry in Salford was to build a major arts complex as a trigger for the regeneration of the area, and it has been a resounding success in encouraging social cohesion and as a catalyst for the regeneration of the local economy. The BBC’s decision to relocate some of its key departments there, and the subsequent development of MediaCity, are clear evidence of this.

If culture and the arts are to benefit our economy, they need to be funded. John Maynard Keynes, who, let us face it, understood a thing or two about economics, was the first chairman of the Arts Council. He said that,

“the support and encouragement of the civilising arts of life”,

were part of a Government’s duty. The Minister knows that the DCMS is small, receives very little and provides a significant return on what government invests, and I hope that he can confirm reports that the Secretary of State is defending the department’s budget “tooth and nail”.

That said, the business models of arts organisations are and should be a mix, not simply because of pressures on the public purse but because the mixed economy works. I pick up here on what the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, said about philanthropy. The Government have established a match-funding scheme with £80 million from public funds to encourage philanthropy, but I think that there has been a problem with success in this area, because the sector does not really have fundraising skills. I suggest a slightly different solution to his, which is that part of that £80 million should be used to teach small and medium-sized organisations how to raise funds.

On the plus side, thanks to new technologies, there are many new opportunities for raising funds, such as crowd funding, which involves encouraging large numbers of people to give small amounts of money over the internet to causes that they support. We did this as an arts crowd funder and, in its first year, it funded over 40 projects through over 1,600 donations. My favourite model has been developed by RADA. Apparently the skills required as an actor in playing a role, performing in front of strangers and something called status adjustment are also needed by businesspeople, who are flocking to sign on to a day of being taught these things at the cost of £625—so the Treasury should take note that luvvies have business acumen.

As well as finance, the creative economy needs people who are skilled in art and other creative subjects. That is another area in which the culture and arts sector is important to the economy. The creative industries suffer from a skills shortage and can play a crucial role in addressing the problem of youth unemployment. That is why I welcome the fact that a national plan for cultural education is finally to be launched this month. I welcome the many initiatives that are helping young people, such as First Story, a charity run by Katie Waldegrave and William Fiennes, who organise and finance creative after-school workshops for students in state schools. Then there is the Young Arts Entrepreneur programme at Curve Theatre in Leicester, which receives Arts Council funding.

When money is tight and the whole of government needs to make savings, we need to make the case for the arts more than ever. Culture and the arts are the bedrock of the creative sector, worth more than £36 billion a year and employing 1.5 million people, as well as making our country an exciting and dynamic place to live and work. The sector is forecast to grow 31% by 2020, but for this to happen it needs the right support.

In conclusion, like the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, I want to say that the importance of culture and the arts is not just about their contribution to the economy. Sarah Crompton, a judge for the Art Fund Museum of the Year Award, wrote recently that her trip around the nation,

“has been a revelation … my head has spun with impressive visitor figures, education plans and collection strategies. Before I started on this adventure, I had thought—in vague, general terms—that museums and galleries were A Good Thing … What I had not really reckoned with was the kind of pride they engender”.