I read Nicholas Hytner’s article with interest (The arts in Britain are teetering on the brink. Here is my plan to save them, 17 May). As someone who founded and runs a disability arts organisation working everywhere from Zoom to the Barbican, it is clear to me that some of the most exciting and innovative art comes from what he might call “community” and “non-professional” arts, not from what he described as the “top end”. While sports are reasonably objective and have a clear pathway of progression, the arts and cultural sector cannot simply be stratified, without risking ossifying. It is only through bringing together creative communities of people committed to the arts – whether through professional training, personal development, or any combination – that we’ll be able to really have the “best possible art”.
Separating off the art created by those people fortunate enough to have been able to develop potential careers as “professional artists” will set the diversity of the sector back enormously, returning it more and more to those people who have had the privilege – often formed through financial security – to make their way in an uncertain sector. Hytner is right that we need to save the arts – and certainly right that we need to be investing in arts education – but rather than separating community and professional work, we need to be uniting them.
Jamie Hale
Founder and artistic director, CRIPtic Arts
• Can I add a further suggestion to Nicholas Hytner’s excellent plan for saving the performing arts? I strongly agree that we need two arts funding bodies equivalent to UK Sport and Sport England – one to support professional work and the other to encourage amateur arts. However, if this wholly sensible policy were to be adopted, we would need to ensure that it was linked to its corollary: investing in educational initiatives to create an appetite for the arts and ensure the existence of audiences in the future.
It will take a change of government to bring Hytner’s proposal to life. Some years ago, when Jeremy Hunt was shadow secretary of state at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, at his request I discussed funding the arts with him and said that it seemed shortsighted not to give more support. “I absolutely agree,” he said. I suggested that his department should collaborate with the Department for Education in developing a strategy for encouraging future audiences. “Let me call Michael,” he said. Michael Gove responded to his summons and I told him that I thought it would be shortsighted to fund the arts without funding education in the arts. “I absolutely agree,” he said.
Richard Eyre
London
• Nicholas Hytner’s suggestion that Arts Council England (ACE) is replaced by a two-tier system is as flawed as the present system.
The problems facing the arts in the UK are deeper and wider than just dance, opera and classical music. ACE has abrogated its responsibility for the arts in favour of a flawed funding system and operational plan. Audiences are ignored and the strategic plan Let’s Create appears to overlook the arts completely, with an emphasis on filling the chasm left by the government’s erosion of arts education in schools.
ACE has no art form policies that inform funding decisions. It is crucial that art form policies and an action plan are devised. The treatment of English National Opera is a case in point. ACE withdraws ENO’s national portfolio funding and then agrees to fund ENO for three years with £35.5m of lottery funding. This, they say, is part of levelling up – another oxymoron with no discernible policy or costed action plan.
A freedom of information inquiry revealed that lottery expenditure was £448.53m in 2022-23, committed to paying out grants to national portfolio organisations for the next three years. It is scandalous that lottery monies should be used in this way instead of funding touring, artistic projects and supporting the work of artists.
It is time for a rigorous examination of ACE by the National Audit Office in terms of its business plan, use of lottery funds and disbursement of its government grants. Heads should roll at ACE.
Chris Hodgkins
Ealing, London
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