Arts: Funding

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the board of the National Campaign for the Arts. I join others in thanking the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for the opportunity to debate this important topic. One thing that I can claim to have in common with the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, whom I congratulate and welcome, is that we are both alumni of “Newsnight”—although there may be two things, because I think that we both appeared on Michael Crick’s blog in that context.

Oscar Wilde said:

“Art is not something which you can take or leave. It is a necessity of human life”.

I have made many speeches agreeing with him. The arts bring happiness to practitioners and consumers alike; they define and bind communities; they provide understanding of the world we live in and what makes us human. They also contribute to the economy and to the esteem in which we are held abroad.

The arts are flourishing, as the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, said, and we wish them to continue to flourish. The coalition has restored National Lottery funding to its original good causes, which means an additional £50 million a year. We hope to introduce a gross-profits tax regime, which will further enhance receipts. Also, after the 2012 Olympics, lottery funding will be fully restored. However, due to the financial circumstances in which we find ourselves, the arts sector has to accommodate funding cuts that reflect wider pressure on public spending. Consequently, helping arts organisations to raise money from other sources is important.

Philanthropy must be encouraged. To that end, last year’s announcement of a match-funding scheme of £80 million from public funds is to be welcomed. In 2008, the Labour Government introduced a similar scheme to encourage donations to UK universities, which has been hugely successful. However, a crucial lesson was learnt: the importance of investing in the teaching of fundraising skills.

I read the other day of a rather underhand test that eight regional museums were subject to which illustrates the point. A fictional, recently widowed woman sent a letter to each museum saying how much she enjoyed them and how she wanted a new hobby, making it clear that she had money at her disposal. She included a £10 note. Only one museum responded, and only with a brief note of thanks. Can the Minister confirm that part of the £80 million will be used to support small and medium-sized organisations that may not have a history of fundraising?

Looking forward, as my noble friend Lord Brooke rightly said we must, we see opportunities on offer as a result of new technologies. We should investigate how these can be harnessed both to boost fundraising and to extend access to the arts. A type of scheme has emerged on the internet called crowd funding. This involves encouraging large numbers of people to give small amounts of money through the web to causes that they support. WeDidThis is a recently launched site whose manifesto is, “Art for everyone, funded by everyone”. Citizen philanthropy connects the giver with the particular work to which they are donating. A company called Digital Theatre uses its own equipment to record theatre productions, which they then sell for far less than the cost of a ticket to watch online, but from the best seat in the house. The money made is shared with the production, so as well as extending access this is another potential new source of income.

Another, rather different way of alleviating funding cuts is also, happily, good for the planet. I have recently come across a young woman, Rachel Madan, who has created a company called Greener Museums. She helps museums and other cultural organisations of all sizes to identify and develop sustainable practices. The consequence of this is both to reduce costs and to attract sustainability funding. The Beacon Museum in Cumbria has changed its habits in such a way as to allow it to reduce operating costs by £10,000 year on year. Warrington Museum has managed to reduce electricity consumption by 14 per cent in just one month. I believe that the Tate, through its own initiative, has reduced utilities costs by £237,000 over three years.

Finally, I am sorry that funding for the Creative Partnerships scheme, which so successfully encouraged creativity in schools by sending artists into them to work with teachers and pupils, has been cut by both the Government and Arts Council England. I urge the Minister to encourage the Arts Council and the Department for Education not to throw away their very valuable relationship and experience.

I started off by talking about philanthropy. While a lot is written and said about the great contribution of so-called cultural giving in the United States, I am sure that the Minister will agree with me that this coalition does not believe in importing the US model into the UK. The connection that is made between the citizen and culture as a result of funding through direct taxation is a crucial part of the equation. Public money dispensed by arm’s-length bodies free from commercial or, for that matter, political consideration is an essential part of a thriving arts sector—an arts sector that produces the risky and the challenging as well that which soothes the soul.