Arts: Funding

Lord Moser Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Moser]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Earl for giving us this opportunity for debate, and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, on her remarkable maiden speech and on all that she has done and will continue to do for the arts. I have spent much of my own life involved in the arts, and sometimes have not been popular. Years ago, an Arts Minister said in Parliament, “We are all used to Claus Moser’s annual whingeing for the arts”. Today, however, I will not be whingeing, but I will express some concerns.

The arts are in the most flourishing state that they have been in for decades. I refer not just to the great London institutions but to all the small, innovative, risk-taking activities up and down the country. There is massive outreach, wider access everywhere, festivals and lots of personal creativity. At the centre is the vital and highly successful Arts Council, created by Keynes in 1946.

We all know the benefits. Economically, the creative industries earn 7 per cent of GDP and employ 2 million people. They are a great help to tourism and invisible exports; they help to regenerate poor communities; and they enhance the quality of life and happiness of all of us. Now come the cuts, and the damage that they will cause is inevitable and visible. As we heard from the noble Earl, the Arts Council is facing a tough 29 per cent cut, so inevitably many of its clients will suffer.

However, at least the Arts Council is dealing with this in as rational and helpful a way as possible. I say “at least” because my greatest worry is not the Arts Council clients but those of local authorities. The local authorities do not have any central guidance or leadership. Some of them have already decided to abolish arts funding totally. Others, including Birmingham, are cutting by 50 per cent, and we have not seen the end of it by any means. As if that were not enough, the regional development agencies—a very helpful source of arts funding—are being abolished.

Schools are probably more important than anything else that I will talk about. The schools world is hesitating about what to do with music in future. Universities are cutting the arts and humanities. The combined effect of all this must be to threaten our flourishing arts scene and its obvious benefits, so we must look to the Government to do all that they can to limit the damage.

Private philanthropy is already being urged by Ministers although, as the Economist stated some weeks ago, the practical steps taken so far, including the £8 million spread over four years, will not go very far. The Government must seriously research what chances there might be for helpful taxation changes, with both philanthropy and corporate giving in mind. This possibility is much more realistic for the corporate sector, not least in areas where the local authorities are turning their backs.

What matters most is the atmosphere created by the Government. We want, not least from the Prime Minister himself, encouragement for everybody in the arts world in line with the words of President Kennedy. I have quoted them before and quote them again now in conclusion:

“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose—and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization”.

That is the kind of idealism that I want from this Government and from all of us, followed of course not just by words but by action.