Grassroots Arts and Culture: Luton

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Digital and Culture (Caroline Dinenage)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Luton South (Rachel Hopkins) on introducing her first debate, which she did quite splendidly. This is a very important issue, and I think we are very much in agreement. Our cultural and creative sectors are one of the UK’s greatest success stories, one of our best calling cards and one of those things that really promote the levelling-up agenda. We also agree about the vital role that grassroots arts and culture play in binding local communities together. She is clearly a great champion for the arts in her area and she has really brought it to life this evening, as I am sure other Members will agree.

We know that Luton is a great example of how the power of art can bring communities together. That was incredibly apparent in the spectacular “People Power Passion” celebrations that lasted for two days last July. I very much appreciate her sharing with me the video of that wonderful event in her constituency. As she said, it was really dynamic and brought together people from different age groups and backgrounds not only among the performers, but in the audience. It was a really inspiring event and one that Luton should be super-proud of. Of course I also recognise the devastating impact that covid-19 has had right across our arts and culture, particularly on our grassroots venues that were forced to close in March. It has had a significant impact on businesses, staff, performers and all the many others who make these places such a wonderful part of our success story.

The Government have provided unprecedented support to the arts and culture sectors in response to the crisis and its impact on businesses and individuals. At the very beginning, Arts Council England very quickly delivered an emergency response package of £160 million of Government funding. I am sure that the hon. Lady will be aware of the many organisations and individuals working in Luton that have benefited from that emergency funding. Those include the brilliant Khayaal Theatre Company, which, as she knows, is a multi-award-winning drama education company, and Little Red Creative Studios, which is a centre for arts with a strong focus on community and accessibility, which I think we would all agree is super-important.

It is our real, sincere hope that this funding has provided a solid source of support at this incredibly challenging time and helped to preserve the creative ecology of the hon. Lady’s area, which she described so brilliantly. Of course, she mentioned—and the House will be aware of it—the £1.57 billion culture recovery fund. We are really clear that we expect the cultural sectors to represent our diverse society in their artistic talent, their workforce and their audiences. As with all Arts Council funding, the culture recovery fund will require all organisations in receipt of funds to demonstrate progress on things such as diversity and outreach over the coming years in return for our investment in their futures. To that end, they will be required to participate in a post-programme evaluation.

So far, grassroots music venues across England have been the first recipients of this funding, and the £3.36 million emergency grassroots music venues fund has been shared among 135 venues across England that applied for support. Those were places that were at imminent risk of collapse as a result of covid. I know that the hon. Lady will be delighted that the Bear Club and the Dallow Centre in Luton have been awarded funding through that scheme. They are much-loved cultural venues that are vital to the local cultural ecosystem, and I hope that will go some way towards helping them to weather the storm and continue to offer exciting and diverse programmes to the city.

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that grassroots venues play such an important role in building many successful careers, bringing enjoyment to audiences of all ages and supporting local economies right up and down the country. We know that this is an incredibly challenging time and that many cultural organisations and individuals currently face significant difficulty and uncertainty.

I have met virtually weekly since February, at roundtables, representatives from right across the arts and culture sectors that I represent. I have met people from up and down the country—from all corners—on a very regular basis, just so that I can fully understand and fully get inside the pressures that they are facing. My team in DCMS has been working incredibly hard to try to find solutions that will support this vital sector going forward—ways to try to reopen venues that remain closed and to allow grassroots groups to begin again, obviously all the while maintaining social distancing, as we all need to.

The substantial Government funding package, which, as the hon. Lady knows, represents the largest ever investment in our culture and arts, will be used right across England to help support the performing arts, theatres, museums, heritage, galleries, independent cinemas and live music venues. The Arts Council has been chosen to administer that because it has the expertise to do it and to ensure that we are supporting individuals and venues at this challenging time.

Of course, this is about individuals. It is not just about buildings; it is about the people who bring these places to life. A big priority has been to try to resume cultural activity, albeit in a distanced way, because we know that, more than anything, our brilliant freelancers and individuals want to get back to work and do what they do best. However, we also know that, for some, that has not been possible, so, complementing this funding package, Arts Council England has announced £95 million of additional support for individuals, including freelancers. There will be a further round of its programme Developing your Creative Practice this autumn, which makes approximately £18 million available for individuals who want to develop new creative skills. It is also adding an extra £2 million to the relevant benevolent funds that have been set up across various sectors to support those who are less well supported by these programmes, such as stage managers and technicians.

Arts Council England is our national development agency for creativity and it has a strategic vision for the next 10 years, which I think the hon. Lady will appreciate. It is called Let’s Create and sets out that by 2030, England will be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where everyone has access to a range of quality cultural experiences. With that in mind, it currently funds over 800 organisations right across the country as part of its national portfolio. That includes grassroots organisations and those that work to engage local communities. There are two in Luton, for example. There is the Culture Trust, supported for its work at the historical Wardown House, with the special exhibitions and the programme of arts that are local community-focused, and then, of course, there is the Luton carnival, which she mentioned. Alongside Arts Council funding, that is also backed by the local council and the UK Centre for Carnival Arts. I know that that is a hugely anticipated annual event, and it was very disappointing that May’s carnival was cancelled, but I am sure that it will come back bigger, stronger and better in 2021.

I am also really supportive of the Arts Council’s Creative People and Places project in Luton, with Revoluton Arts working across the Marsh Farm and Bury Park areas of Luton. They have delivered a number of brilliant creative programmes designed by and with the local community, with the purpose of encouraging more people to engage with the arts.

I hope that I have gone some way to reassure the hon. Lady that the Government truly believe in and recognise the power of art to transform places and, of course, to transform lives. They work to make the arts and the wider culture of museums and libraries an integral part of everyday public life, accessible to all and understood as absolutely essential to not only our national economy, but the health and happiness of society.

Question put and agreed to.