Charlotte Higgins makes a passionate case for creating more equal access to the arts for the cultural health of the nation (Arts funding has collapsed under 14 years of Tory rule. Here are three ways Labour can fix it, 19 March). As she rightly argues, the personal and civic benefits of the arts are enormous. Equally remarkable is the economic impact of the UK’s creative industries, which have grown at 1.5 times the rate of the wider economy for the past decade, generating more wealth than aerospace, the life sciences and automotive sectors combined.
That is why we need to nurture and protect the country’s pipeline of talent into the sector – ensuring that everyone not only has access to the arts, but also the opportunity to receive an arts education at university. This means widening access through maintenance grants, retaining the ability of overseas students to bring their talents to our shores and, more broadly, getting our higher education system on to a sustainable footing.
The government also needs to undertake a comprehensive skills review to identify the specific skills shortages within our creative industries, essential for workforce planning and skills investment.
The world needs creativity, and the UK’s creative skills have never been in higher demand. As policymakers strive to generate economic growth, let’s ensure those skills are not in short supply.
James Purnell
President and vice-chancellor, University of the Arts London
• Charlotte Higgins is exactly right in noting that Britain’s arts are fundamental to the way the country is seen overseas and integral to our overall quality of life as a nation. But I think all those who work – or are at least interested – in the arts can see that we can’t rely on governments alone to solve the problem.
The ideal situation is that a Labour government would “fix” these issues, as Charlotte says, but we don’t live in a world of ideals. This change will take time, and we can’t sit around and be complacent.
As we continue to pressure our governments to make real change at a national level, I implore leaders in the arts to do the work to help schools. Now more than ever, creatives need to pick up our government’s slack.
As an immigrant from Delhi, I never realised a career in design was possible, let alone cool and profitable. If I didn’t have teachers who felt supported and empowered to guide me on to this path, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Partner with schools, sponsor art programmes, go in and inspire the students.
But even if you don’t have these resources, there are still ways each of us can continue to rally our youth towards a more creative future. If you can’t help schools financially, or feel uncomfortable speaking to crowds, speak directly to parents, friends, colleagues – make them realise that their children can live comfortable lives outside Stem careers.
We’re not powerless, and we need to keep working to push change forward. If we don’t, our creative industries will become insular, nepotistic, and just plain boring.
Gush Mundae
Founder, Bulletproof design agency
• Charlotte Higgins makes suggestions for arts funding that are just a return to some of what we had, but we need something different. I work at Marine Studios in Margate, and there’s a book in the library called When Art Worked, about the forgotten ways Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal employed artists. Tens of thousands of them.
The 1,100 new post offices that were built under the New Deal got murals or paintings that celebrated ordinary life. The Federal Music Project employed 15,000 musicians, who gave 225,000 performances to an audience of three million people. It also catalogued music, making a record of 5,500 works, recorded folk music and pioneered music therapy.
Holger Cahill ran one of many programmes; he employed 5,000 artists to make art for schools, hospitals and government buildings. They produced 108,000 paintings and 18,000 sculptures.
The Federal Writers’ Project employed 7,500. They produced guides to every state and to major cities, completed 150 volumes about life in the US, and wrote enough books to fill seven 3-metre bookcases; 3m copies were printed.
The Federal Theatre Project employed 12,700 and they entertained an audience of 30 million people, with 75% getting free tickets. It produced an all-Black Macbeth, Living Newspapers (dramatic telling of news stories about racial injustice, worker rights and housing discrimination) and radio theatre.
Then there were amphitheatres carved from parks, and monuments erected and bridges built. Furniture was designed – tables and chairs and cushions and curtains for all the buildings erected as part of the New Deal.
These programmes reset the way generations in the US viewed the arts, helped people better understand the places they lived, and created a stronger, more resilient civic society. We don’t need tinkering from Labour – we need big, bold ideas to rebuild a broken country, and restore our own civic society. We need a 21st-century New Deal.
Dan Thompson
Ramsgate, Kent
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