The arts are one of Britain’s strongest suits. Music, theatre, museums and art, literature, the screen industry – all are fundamental to the way the country is seen overseas, and of profound importance to citizens’ quality of life. A confident cultural scene makes a city, town or region a better place to live, stimulates the economy, and acts as a resource for people’s delight, education and health. The problem is that over the past 14 years, England has been cutting off this huge resource at the root. (So have, to a greater or lesser extent, the devolved administrations, but that is another story less relevant to an incoming Westminster parliamentary minister.)
Central government and local authority funding for the arts has collapsed, and access to culture has been downgraded in schools. That blocks pathways for those who could become the artists of the future, and for those who could become engaged, enriched audiences, too. In short: inequality of access to the arts – and therefore social and educational inequality – is being baked into the structure of Britain.
