Blog/16/7/10
The pain…
Sir Andrew Motion, chairman of the MLA and former Poet Laureate, has joined the siren chorus warning of the effects of the government’s scorched earth policy for the arts, highlighting the local government sector.
‘If the Big Society means we aspire to create more civilised places where humanity prevails, and the individual spirit thrives, then artistic and cultural activity is not just indispensable, it must sit at the core, and national and local government must work together in one cause’ he said today.
‘Most of our country’s population up and down the country rely on libraries, museums, exhibitions, record offices and performances, funded or part-funded by local government. Towns and cities stripped of books, arts, theatres and celebrations of our past and future would be a grave threat to a bigger, better society.
‘But we must recognise the pressure local councils are under to protect much more expensive services, ranging from road maintenance to care of children and the elderly. We are obliged to ensure that the benefits of the relatively small sums of funds that go on arts and culture are accurately targeted, spread wide, and act as a catalyst for creativity. In this climate, it has never been more important to safeguard one nation whose heritage, culture and international excellence is more than the sum of its parts.’
It follows the revelation yesterday that DCMS has told arts organisations to look at cuts of between 25% and 40%, which Nicholas Serota, Vikki Heywood, Jude Kelly, Nick Starr, Julia Peyton-Jones and Alistair Spalding lined up yesterday to call ‘devastating’. ACE would have to cut at least 200 of its 880 RFOs, and the panel pleaded with the government not make them face ‘front-loading’ of the cuts from which the cultural and creative sector would never recover. Since then, Serota has gone into print in the Evening Standard to say we – part of our fifth biggest industry, tourism – are facing a cultural recession at the high point of a creative golden age.
A&B ‘s Colin Tweedy has also added his two-pennorth on behalf of private sector funding: ‘Every walk of British life is being challenged at this time. No one will be exempt. The private sector should be seen as a supplement to the public sector, but rarely a substitute. But together the public and private sectors are a powerful advocate, both for continuity and change. Let us not try and divide the two at this time.’
…and the pleasure
No thought of a scorched earth in Derry~Londonderry this morning as it celebrates being named UK City of Culture 2013, beating Birmingham, Sheffield and Norwich (my picture shows the mayor Callum Eastwood at the moment of triumph for the ‘Just Say Yes’ campaign). It’s a city small enough still to have a town clerk, who is Valerie Watts: ‘We have been given a once in a lifetime chance not only to share our innate talent, creativity and energy with the rest of the world, but also to transform this region forever’ she said as recession-blind champagne corks popped last night. ‘This is a new chapter in our journey from plantation to peace, and its legacy will last for generations. We hoped that the judging panel would understand our bold ambition and passion to tell a new story’.
More than that, Derry and the regeneration company Ilex are committing £200m mostly on getting a cultural quarter made out of the old Ebrington Barracks of odious memory, creating 3,000 jobs in 2013 alone, and hoping for another honour. They want the ancient walls of Derry declared a World Heritage Site in time for the 400th anniversary of them being built to keep Catholics out and Protestants safely in, which also happens to fall in 2013.
