Arts: Funding

Lord Wasserman Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wasserman]

My Lords, three weeks ago today I was introduced in your Lordships’ House. These have been action-packed weeks and I know that some noble Lords have found them tiring and perhaps even a bit tiresome. But for a new boy like me, these busy days and long nights have provided a marvellous opportunity to find one’s way around the House and to get to know one’s fellow Peers.

I feel enormously privileged to be a Member of this historic institution. I want to thank my supporters, the noble Lord, Lord Gavron, and my noble friend Lord Taverne. Both have made enormous contributions to this country over many years and I am deeply honoured that they were prepared to overlook my party affiliation and introduce me. I also want to join the other maiden speaker, the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, in thanking the officers and staff of this House for their kindness and patience, and for helping us to find our way around both geographically and in terms of process and procedures.

When I decided to make my maiden speech in this important and timely debate, initiated by the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, I had no idea that the list of speakers would include so many of the brightest stars in Britain’s cultural firmament. I feel rather like a football fan whose knowledge and experience of the game is derived entirely from “Match of the Day” but who somehow finds himself addressing a meeting of Premier League club executives and managers. I therefore beg the indulgence of the House if I express views that might appear to some to be naive and simplistic, but I speak as an amateur in this field, although one who cares deeply about the arts and regards them as a national treasure to be protected and nourished.

We are very privileged in this country to have access to a world-class arts scene: theatre, opera, dance, music, museums, galleries and much more. All this is made possible through a combination of state funding and the generosity of a relatively small number of public-spirited individuals and corporations. As far as the state’s contribution to the arts is concerned, the amount involved will always be a matter for heated debate, in common with every other aspect of public expenditure. As noble Lords will know, the level of state funding for the arts in Britain is extremely generous when compared with the United States, where I lived for 12 of the last 15 years. Where the Americans do score, however, is in relation to funding by what are now called “high net worth individuals”—we used to call them “the rich”—and corporate sponsors. Taken together, these private benefactors account for the vast majority of support for the arts in that country, as other noble Lords have pointed out. The reason for this is not that Americans are by nature a more generous people. I say this as someone who was born and brought up in Canada and knows Americans well. It is because their tax system encourages giving by making it deductible before income tax is paid.

Giving money is not the only way of supporting the arts. Active participation by attending concerts and joining choirs, visiting galleries and even occasionally buying a picture or two, preferably by living artists, may be an even more effective way of building a rich national cultural life. But, for me, the most important thing that we can do to support the arts, no matter how rich or poor we may be, is to encourage young people to develop a love for the arts and, where appropriate, to help them develop any latent artistic talents they may have. We can do this by encouraging children to learn to play a musical instrument, write stories, act, dance, paint or express themselves in any one of countless artistic forms. We can do this by encouraging local schools and youth groups to devote more attention to the arts and by volunteering to help them to do so. We can do this also by encouraging young people with real talent who are tempted to pursue a career in the arts to follow that dream.

I believe that there is much more to public support for the arts than state funding. Public support includes what all of us can do, in our families and in our communities, to encourage a new generation of artists to build upon our cultural heritage and take it forward into the future. It is this kind of public support that we must develop and expand.