Government Support for Artists

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for this debate. He keeps this House talking about the arts and culture, which is so important.

Last week, the DCMS published the latest figures for the creative industries. They demonstrate what the noble Earl, I and, I think, all who are taking part in this debate know and have been saying for so long about the importance of the cultural sector. It grew by nearly 10% in 2013, three times the rate of the wider UK economy.

The noble Earl asked about support for the individual artist. I want to concentrate on when and where it starts. It is essential that the status of the arts in the classroom is properly recognised. There is a lot of debate at the moment—at the time of the Oscars, the BAFTAs and everything else—about how many of our top-flight actors are from public schools. Surely a key factor is that they were fortunate enough to have experienced dedicated time to study the arts at school, and they had inspirational teachers. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that this must be extended beyond the private sector?

To quote Grayson Perry:

“For so many children, doing art … isn’t something they come across until they are taught it at school. Not everyone’s mother sits down with scissors and paper and makes collages with them … The idea that art will somehow look after itself—that society will breed untaught geniuses—is rubbish”.

Darren Henley—now, I am glad to say, chief executive of the Arts Council—agrees with Grayson Perry. In his review of cultural education, he noted that,

“this area of education is no longer valued as much as it once was”,

despite the fact that the schools that provide high-quality cultural education get better academic results. Does my noble friend agree that Darren Henley’s national plan should finally be fully implemented?

I turn to what happens when you emerge from the educational system. The coalition has overseen a record number of apprenticeships in the creative industries funded by government. Eighty-one per cent of those who have gone through such apprenticeships take up jobs in the creative industries, so this is obviously something to build on. I declare an interest here as a trustee of the Lowry. We are involved through our future leaders programme in organising placements and mentoring for those who leave education. And then there is the Lowry Studio, which among other things provides space for new and emerging artistic companies to work. I agree strongly with the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, on the issue of space—therein lies a problem. My sister, who is an artist, was part of an artistic co-operative back in the 1980s. A graphic design company—it was called Cubitt; I do not know whether your Lordships know about that—donated a space that was temporarily empty and artists were allowed to occupy it. They could both pursue their art and learn business skills. They learnt about how to run a space. As we know, many empty buildings across the UK could be used in this way. They are not necessarily spaces that could be turned into places for people to live, but they could be turned into spaces for artists.

Have you noticed that whenever an important person visits a school—a Prime Minister or a President—the first things that they are shown are the paintings of the children? The next thing they are invited to do is to listen to the singing of the children. I rest our case.