News and Policy Brief - February
Policy Briefing from the Crafts Council - February 2010.
1. Political developments
Both Ben Bradshaw, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Jeremy Hunt, his Conservative shadow, gave speeches at a major conference in January. State of the Arts, organised by the Royal Society for the Arts and Arts Council England, aimed to offer participants an opportunity to debate the value and purpose of the arts, at a time of significant change. Neither of the politicians’ speeches contained any new policies, but largely focused on allaying fears about spending cuts. Ben Bradshaw asserted his belief in the value of culture and promised to fight to protect culture from cuts, should Labour win the general election. Jeremy Hunt used his speech to re-emphasise his commitment that cuts under a Conservative government would be directed at the administrative budgets of Arts Council England and other cultural quangos and lottery distributors, rather than at front-line organisations. However, responding to Hunt’s speech, Dame Liz Forgan noted: “Jeremy Hunt: we are not just a bank. Being a bank is easy. If you really want us to be an arts development agency that’s what costs the money … artistic freedom needs a single-minded champion and we all gain from a clear focus and robust buffer between politicians and artists.”
Some of the Conservative’s commitments were reiterated in a chapter of their draft manifesto, published in January. Chapter 2 of the manifesto, “Mending our broken society”, focuses on schools, crime and families but also includes the policies outlined above, along with a promise to investigate new ways to increase philanthropy. There is a commitment to “develop a measure of well-being that encapsulates all it means to live a good and fulfilling life”. A separate culture manifesto is expected to be published before the election.
The draft manifesto is available to download at the Conservatives website
State of the Arts conference proceedings as audio, video and transcripts are available here.
2. Culture and creativity in education
Some new policy did emerge in January. Ed Vaizey gave the clearest outline yet of what the Conservatives’ approach to cultural education would be, in a speech at the Yehudi Menuhin School. He identified four aims of cultural education, all of which the Crafts Council would endorse: to introduce children to the arts; to give them a chance to master something for themselves; to nurture exceptional talent; and to play a part in transforming the lives of children whose circumstances are difficult.
The speech also promoted the idea of a coherent national strategy for cultural education. The Crafts Council agrees that resources are unevenly and illogically distributed, with some areas of the country having stronger provision, and with some art forms benefitting from much better funding and higher profile than others. The “coherence and stability” that Vaizey hopes a long-term strategy could bring would be warmly welcomed, and the Crafts Council would hope to seize any opportunity to ensure that all children have access to high-quality craft education in schools. The difficult question is how to reconcile a national strategy with an approach that still allows for the richness offered by local or specialist initiatives and the enthusiasm and talent of individual teachers. The Crafts Council has a planned meeting with Ed Vaizey in a few weeks’ time and we look forward to discussing this further with him.
Also in January, Ofsted published a report demonstrating how schools can use creative approaches to learning effectively. The survey is not limited to the teaching of obviously creative and cultural subjects, but understands a “creative” approach to learning to be one which encourages pupils to challenge and explore ideas, to make connections and see relationships and to reflect critically on their own work and ideas. Many of the examples of this creative approach to learning also involve the use of the performing and visual arts and one section of the report focuses on the work of Creative Partnerships.
Learning: creative approaches that raise standards, January 2010 is available to download at the Ofsted website
3. Arts Council consultation
The State of the Arts conference also saw the launch of a consultation by Arts Council England, Achieving Great Art for Everyone. The consultation aims to provide a strategic framework for ACE’s work for the next ten years. It builds on the research undertaken by ACE between 2006 and 2008 to inform its current strategic plan. The consultation proposes five long term goals for the arts as a whole:
1. Talent and artistic excellence are thriving and celebrated
2. The arts leadership and workforce are diverse and highly skilled
3. More people value and enjoy the arts
4. Every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts
5. The sector is sustainable, resilient and innovative
The document then explores how these might be realised through a specific vision for each of the areas of ACE’s work. The Crafts Council agrees with many of the proposed areas of focus set out in the report, but has some concerns about matters of detail and will be raising these with ACE in discussion and in our formal response to the document. We will also contribute to a joint response being prepared by the National Campaign for the Arts.
The consultation document is available at the Arts Council website, along with a document summarising the research that underpins it which can be found here.
The consultation closes on 14th April 2010. We hope that everyone interested in contemporary craft will respond. It would be very helpful if you would copy us into any responses you do make. Please send copies to artsconsultation@craftscouncil.org.uk
4. Higher education
As reported in our January briefing, colleagues in higher education are concerned about current and future cuts to HE budgets. HEFCE published its decisions about funding to universities and colleges for the academic year 2010- 2011 at the start of February. The allocations represent a significant cut in capital budgets, a real-term decrease in teaching budgets and real-term level funding allocation for research. In line with the emphasis of the government’s university strategy, HEFCE has allocated additional funding to universities that begin to shift the balance of their provision towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. The Crafts Council remains concerned that the funding cuts and emphasis on STEM subjects represent a serious threat to the sector. We have had recent meetings with senior colleagues at the Royal College of Art and the University of the Arts, London, to discuss these issues amongst others.
5. Social mobility
In January, the government published its response to Alan Milburn’s report on social mobility: Unleashing Aspiration. While the report concentrated on access to the more formally constituted professions, many of its recommendations also apply to the craft sector, where opportunities for people from more diverse and poorer backgrounds can be limited.
The response is available here
6. Lifetime giving and philanthropy
Encouraging philanthropy remains a key element of the Conservatives’ cultural policy, although the experience of some US institutions whose income from endowments has suffered badly during the recession demonstrates one drawback of this approach. In a House of Lords debate on taxation on 28th January, Lord Howarth of Newport (Alan Howarth, a former minister at DCMS) drew attention to the campaign backed by the National Campaign for the Arts and the National Museum Directors’ Conference among others to promote private giving through tax incentives.
Meanwhile, a new report from Arts and Business shows that private giving to the arts fell by 7% in 2008-9. Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts and Business, warned that this fall was unlikely to be the low point for private giving, with more difficult years ahead and emphasised the need for government to support giving by individuals and businesses.
7. Parliamentary briefing
• Colleagues who work with schools may be interested to know that the Children, Schools and Families Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons on 11th January. There was some discussion of the commitment to offer five hours of cultural activity a week to all children, with Michael Gove, Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families suggesting that the guarantee is somewhat weak:
There is also a guarantee of five hours of high-quality PE and sport, but the guarantee on cultural activity contains only an “aspiration” that there should be five hours of it. Once again, why that distinction? Why guarantee five hours of sport, but have only an aspiration for five hours of cultural activity?
• Margaret Hodge, Minister for the Arts, and Jeremy Hunt debated funding for the cultural sector in the House of Commons on 18th January. Hunt suggested that a leaked Treasury document showed that Labour would have to make drastic cuts to the cultural budget, whereas Conservative policies on the Lottery and philanthropy would increase the funding available. Hodge replied:
The hon. Gentleman’s policies are akin simply to moving the deckchairs on the Titanic. Cutting the lottery fund from many of the very good causes to which it currently contributes in order to substitute for Government funding is no answer. Let me also say to him that we have yet to enter into discussions about the next CSR, but he will be aware that we on this team secured a very good settlement last time, although there were cuts across Government. I have no doubt that we can in future persuade our colleagues about the importance of investment in arts and culture from the taxpayer, not through the lottery.
• In response to a question from Lord Fearn in the House of Lords on 18th January, Lord Davies of Oldham reported that Arts Council England spent more than £17m on the visual arts in Greater London in both 2007-8 and 2008-9, including its funding for craft.
• Colleagues whose work has been commissioned by churches may be interested to know that the influential Public Accounts Committee has recommended that cathedrals should receive direct government funding for the first time in a report published in January, Promoting Participation with the Historic Environment.
