Arts: Funding

Lord Luce Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Luce]

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Clancarty has done a great service in introducing this timely debate on arts funding today. I declare an interest as president of the King George V Fund for Actors and Actresses, president of the Voluntary Arts Network, the amateur arts parent body, and president of the newly formed Commonwealth Youth Orchestra. It was just over 20 years ago that I retired as Minister of Arts having had the privilege of five years in that job. Just before I retired, I recall that the journalist Melanie Phillips wrote this:

“The best thing to do with Richard Luce is to have him stuffed and tucked away in the Natural History Museum”.

I took that as a great compliment. Unfortunately, in the past 20 years I have not had time to visit the museum but I have had time to watch with interest and pleasure the improvements that we have seen in the arts world. One great pleasure today is of course to welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, whom I recall so well from my time as Minister of Arts. She will make a great contribution in this House.

Perhaps I may make a few reflections on how things have improved in the past 20 years or so. First, the introduction of the National Lottery was a massive improvement for the arts and I welcome the fresh injection now of another £50 million in that area. Secondly, there is the expansion of the creative industries, on which the noble Lord, Lord Bragg, led a debate just under two years ago and which today make a major contribution to the wealth of the nation. Thirdly, the credit must go to the Labour Government for the increase in resources that they gave to the arts over the past 10 or 12 years, although it is sad that the economic crisis that is now being faced leads to such volatility in the funding of the arts, let alone in other areas.

I want to reflect on one or two other things in my short time. First, it is vital that we maintain through this time of adversity the standards of excellence and access to all, because everybody has the capacity to enjoy and to participate in the arts. Secondly, we have to recognise an important change: it is not just about London, which we used to be told was the only real centre of excellence. All parts of the country now enjoy standards of excellence in the arts, from Edinburgh to Glasgow, from Cardiff to Leeds and Chichester, and so on. That is a major improvement. Thirdly, we must not underestimate the importance of the amateur arts—I declare an interest as president of Voluntary Arts—where nearly 10 million adults participate actively in drama, crafts, painting and all kinds of arts. There are 49,000 arts bodies in this country. They do not demand money but what they want, to enable them to flourish, is to be freed from all the regulations and red tape that exist today.

That leads me to my main point, which is the funding structure. I agree with other noble Lords who have said that we are placed somewhere between the United States, which gives very little public support to the arts, and the continent, where there is much more of it. That we are somewhere in the middle is illustrated by the experience of the clients of Arts Council England. On average, one-third of their income is from box office, one-third from sponsorship and one-third from the taxpayer. Now, long may that last, because diversity and plurality of funding are absolutely essential to the arts to give them independence from any one source of funding—and certainly from state control.

In 1980, the National Theatre depended on taxpayer funding for 60 per cent of its support. It is quite a remarkable achievement that today the figure is down to 30 per cent. The Royal Academy—I declare an interest as an emeritus trustee—is totally self-generating. There, more than 90,000 friends give vital support, which is a lesson to be learnt for many other organisations: that the support from friends can do so much to finance arts bodies and that retaining the arm’s-length principle is absolutely essential.

That leads me to my final point about the background of these cuts. They are familiar to me. Much of the language that I hear today I can recall from the 1980s. I recall one day when I was able to go to the then Chancellor, the noble Lord, Lord Lawson, and prove to him that for every £1 of taxpayers’ money I could get back £5 from the private sector. I believe that might be more difficult to achieve today. Nevertheless, that kind of partnership or challenge funding needs to be the way that we go. I end on the point that the chance now is for this Government to produce a whole range and battery of proposals which will encourage the climate of giving in this country—not so that we can ever be like the United States but so that we can at least know that there is a wide range of incentives to enable us to give more to the arts. We should take this time as a challenge to do just that.