In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s an election year. So, what does it mean for art and culture? Well the hard truth is, culture never makes the cut. Despite how much we value it, when it comes to elections, people want their leaders to solve crime, fix housing and sort the environment. All incredibly important of course — but we only have to imagine a world without creativity to understand how much it means to us.
Just think about it for a moment — no theatres, galleries, festivals, clubs, dance or music. We had a glimpse of what this might be like in the pandemic, and we didn’t like it. As soon as we could, we were back dancing at festivals, being captivated by great theatre and enjoying live comedy.
You would think that even the most hard-nosed Treasury official would find it difficult to ignore an industry worth £108 billion to the UK economy.
In London one in every five jobs is a creative one, yet these industries don’t get the attention they deserve
But there’s so much more to the industry, and as the saying goes — not everything that counts can be counted. All around us culture is making a difference, often profoundly. Dance is reducing dementia, opera is helping rebuild Covid-damaged lungs and theatre is helping young people at risk find a positive new life path. Culture is revitalising neighbourhoods, building communities and dare I say it — hope. On the flip-side, when politicians do back culture, the rewards are immense. When Sadiq Khan asked me to be his deputy mayor, having made culture a top priority, it was a no-brainer.
Almost eight years on East Bank, the largest culture and education district in more than 150 years, is taking shape at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with a new V&A, Sadler’s Wells, BBC, London College of Fashion and UCL. There’s a new Museum of London being built at West Smithfield. Waltham Forest, Brent, Lewisham and Croydon have all been crowned London Borough of Culture, taking culture to doorsteps all across the capital.
Meanwhile, we’ve been working to hardwire culture into the planning system to protect it long-term. Today grassroots venues, artists’ studios and LGBTQI+ clubs are all protected for the first time in the London Plan and 12 new Creative Enterprise Zones are on track to deliver the equivalent of 10 football pitches of permanent, affordable creative workspace.
Culture really is our secret superpower. So let’s start taking it seriously. What else can fix economic stagnation, drive tourism, create jobs, grow the future skills we need, regenerate neighbourhoods, drive hotel and restaurant bookings, rebuild our global reputation, entertain and challenge us, build communities, improve our health and grow our imaginations?
It’s time to dump the cognitive dissonance and stop seeing culture as an “optional extra”, with a tiny sliver of government spending, that is vulnerable when budgets get cut.
