Ministers have come to the rescue. Artists must seize this chance – up to a point Lord Copper
The leader article, āMinisters have come to the rescue. Artists must seize this chanceā in the Guardian on the 2nd June (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/06/the-guardian-view-on-15bn-for-the-arts-the-shows-will-go-on) sounds reasonable till you analyse the Arts Councilās 10 year strategy āLets Createā.
āLetās Createā reads as if written by people remote from the practical issues Ā which the arts face every day and given its limited resources, its goals are unachievable.
Musicians, dancer, painters, poets, writer, singers have been conveniently dumped into a box marked āCreative practitionersā. This is one size fits all and ignores the diversity of expression. Culture has been reduced to a homogenous blob and creativity has been simplified to a uniform act, a level playing field in which the participants are all the same.
The fundamental flaw is the absence of any art form policy and the Arts Councilās failure to resolve inequalities in its last ten-year plan, should be publicly scrutinised and held to account
FurthermoreĀ I see no concrete thinking of where we want to be?Ā Now the money is in place the arts requires the development of a national arts plan that brings all the components of the arts together from pubs to cinemas; from opera houses to folk and jazz clubs, from theatres to art galleries. To make this happen the arts deserve a reformation in arts funding with an organisation that can deliver a rolling, realistic and coherent national plan for the arts where under-represented musics and art forms finally get a place in the sun.