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Don't ruin arts boom by cutting cash, says opera boss
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent22.04.09
THE head of the Royal Opera House today appeals to the Government not to wreck the thriving arts scene that is one of its greatest achievements.
Tony Hall, its chief executive, called for sustained funding for the arts which he hailed as a hugely successful part of the British economy.
He said: "It's Budget day and in the middle of a recession the arts are actually doing very well. You can see it in our international reputation.
"Why cut investment which by any other standard is working extremely well? The sums involved are not huge. They were never huge in the past and they're certainly not huge in terms of public spending now that we have got used to the word 'trillion'."
The arts world fears the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will be forced to share in the Treasury's cutbacks. Arts Council England has produced financial models that prepare for up to a 5 per cent reduction in funds.
But Mr Hall said the buoyant art scene was a direct result of the Government's sustained investment over the last decade and implied it would be disastrous to throw such advances away.
State support, private philanthropy and income generation from the arts themselves worked, he said. This was in contrast to America where many bodies are in crisis because of a drop in private giving due to the downturn. "But the model works because everybody gives a bit. If the Government said, 'We're going to withdraw 10 per cent,' and people giving philanthropically say, 'We're not going to fill the hole,' there would be problems."
Yet the arts could play an even bigger part in helping Britain survive the crisis if there was more funding for apprenticeships, he added.
"Last year a whole bunch of people came out of secondary or tertiary education and they're finding it really hard to get jobs. We can offer creative apprenticeships and placements to young people and give them a sense that the creative industries are something worth devoting their lives to."
Mr Hall said one of the consequences of the fallout from the crisis was that creative industries would be seen to be as important as financial services to the nation's economy.
And he suggested business could learn from Britain's arts managers. "I think we've got an enormous amount to teach people about how to mix creativity and a business sense," he said.
Looking to the 2012 London Olympic Games, he added: "To start reducing funding when you really want to be showing off what Britain is doing so well is wrong."
So far Covent Garden is defying the credit crunch with houses 93 per cent full and no drop in sponsorship.
Reader views (5)
R.E from York is just plain wrong - the arts industry generates money and prestige for the british econmy as well as providing jobs. You just can't tar the whole industry with the same brush - Educationally it is a vital resource - Go to your local museum, it's free! (if you can be bothered to take the time to go in one). Opera is the most vital and complete art form and there are many companies (WNO, ENO, Opera North) who offer £5 and £10 ticket deals and provide education and outreach work in schools. The UK has the balance right - too little public subsidy and the work is too conservative (US model), too much (Europe) and it loses touch with the audience and becomes indulgent. You can't argue that we should cut arts funding just because because you don't take advantage of it.
- Mike Walmsley, Cardiff
All feeding at the taxpayers table. When times get tough, these organizations never want to suffer - instead they push for more.
- Trunk, US
Why should tax payers subsidise the royal opera house? We have just baled out the banks, the car manufacturers, and are being fleeced by MPs in their abuse of their expenses claims. Only the rich can afford to attend the opera so increase your admission fees.
- R.F., Yorks, UK
Why should the arts be subsidised at all? Arts councils and the like are self-perpetuating beaurocracies, fronted by managers who spout precious platitudes and pay themsleves and their staff well. Subsidies just encourage artists to produce ever more bizarre works to milk the system. And subsidising opera, particularly, is a case of taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Jazz, in it's great days in the forties and fifties, was never subsidised but flourished artistically.
- Richard Kennard, Welling
If Hall is saying his opera house is subsidised to the tune of 10%, thats sounds fair enough but any more is just more tax free bunce for the middle classes that go there. I know of a surburban bingo hall in a listed ex cinema that caters for hundreds of pensioners every night that survives without a penny of subsidy. That is entertainment in the community not a few 50p seats on the top balcony.It goes without saying that the opera could easily cut costs by staging shows for longer than a couple of nights.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, England
