"Culture" Minister demands arts make money before subsidisation

[ahinton]

She paid for her own tickets, y'know! :laugh:

And she (now) famously adored Bartók - but for now, music? force strings (or the profitable pulling thereof), pah-cussedness and celesta worry about it the better. Grrr!!!

[Sydney Grew]

. . . However slender her direct knowledge of the arts and their proper purpose may be, it seems clear that what she does understand - and seeks to live by - is the notion of the commodification of everything and the value of nothing. . .

Mr. H. one expects nothing else from "demo-cracy" - the government of the mob. The right path is government by worthy and knowledgeable persons. Regrettably one sees few creative artists any longer advocating that path.

[Richard Barrett]

RB has in large measure focussed on the appointment of Bazalgette. One man, in one organization does not prove institutional bias against the arts. Nor does it demonstrate to me any malevolent intent from the government towards arts funding, especially since the appointment is so recent.

Here is today's press release from ACE.

Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair of Arts Council England, said:

"We welcome the Secretary of State's acknowledgment, on behalf of the Government, that public funding of arts and culture is essential in providing seed corn investment to help attract private money. As well as arts and culture's crucial contribution to our quality of life, this is also an industry that delivers real economic value for our country. Research that we will publish in the coming days will demonstrate that, in return for less than one tenth of one per cent of government funding, arts and culture provides half a per cent of all employment in England and is one of its top 15 export products.

"As the Secretary of State says, we do need to make the economic case. And while doing so, we won't forget that it is not all about money. Every civilised society in man's history has felt the need to express and enjoy itself through music, through performance, storytelling or visual works of art. We are no different and the other vital return on the government's investment is that it enables this need to be met for many, not for the few."

[ahinton]

Here is today's press release from ACE.

Thank you for posting this. It's all fine as far as it goes, of course, but I feel sure that I am by no means alone in reading it as a series of well crafted weasel words; I would like, of course, to feel able to believe otherwise. As I've stated earlier, the oft propounded myth that the arts are some kind of drain down which all funding both public and private falls and no profit is ever generated or possible is just that - a myth. Sir PB's words appear to endorse that it is a mere myth. So why cut investment in them when the purely financial consequence of doing so will be the curtailing of much needed economic growth?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

.... and could we have the same economic justification for the Ministry of defence expenditures, including their usual billions in over spending

[ahinton]

.... and could we have the same economic justification for the Ministry of defence expenditures, including their usual billions in over spending

Ah, now there's a splendid idea! The cost of MOD's gross failures in procurement adminstration alone would fund a substantial number of concerts, operatic productions &c.

[amateur51]

Ah, now there's a splendid idea! The cost of MOD's gross failures in procurement adminstration alone would fund a substantial number of concerts, operatic productions &c.

:laugh:

"Tonight's performance is brought to you by British Aerospace ... bringing grief and misery to the world since 19.."

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

because you can, because it is there ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=veZVoisjzmU

[ahinton]

:laugh:

"Tonight's performance is brought to you by British Aerospace ... bringing grief and misery to the world since 19.."

!!!

[An_Inspector_Calls]

RB

What else would you have him say, your

gutter-TV executive

What would Richard Barratt have said instead that would in some way improve matters?

The level of funding is not under his control, only his pleading. I dare say that if you were in his shoes we'd have the usual Socialist guff which would go down like a lead balloon.

I don't like arts funding being cut but what on earth do we expect at the moment? The commercial viability stuff is piffle, so what? The cuts would still happen.

[ahinton]

RB

What else would you have him say, your
What would Richard Barratt have said instead that would in some way improve matters?

Barrett, actually...

The level of funding is not under his control, only his pleading.

I think that we all know that.

I dare say that if you were in his shoes we'd have the usual Socialist guff which would go down like a lead balloon.

So you've already decided to answer your own question to Richard Barrett rather than wait for him to answer it, then? - and to presume in advance what his response would be?

I don't like arts funding being cut but what on earth do we expect at the moment? The commercial viability stuff is piffle, so what? The cuts would still happen.

If that is indeed to be the case, it will be obvious that the government who makes them will have ignored the facts - not merely pleas - put forward on behalf of the arts that, if the government's intended route is economic growth, indiscriminate and ill-judged cutting of something that contributes to our society and to our economy is plainly not a way to achieve it.

Why do you ask "what on earth do we expect at the moment?"? Would you have us believe that you consider the blame for Britain's current economic situation in general and its indebtedness in particular to be ascribable in some way to the practice of the arts?

On what specific grounds and based upon what particular evidence do you deduce that "the commercial viability stuff is piffle" in this context?

[An_Inspector_Calls]

I think that we all know that.

But not Barrett?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question

[Sir Velo]

There are times that I wish the noticeboard had a recommend facility.

Seconded. A "Like" button just might obviate the need for the ubiquitous flood of posts which essentially regurgitate a previous poster's argument (see Stillhomewardbound's post on another thread).

[ahinton]

But not Barrett?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question

Irrelevant link. For the record, I would not in any case "have" Richard Barrett say anything; I would wait for him to speak for himself, which he is eminently capable of doing if, as and when he feels so disposed..

[MrGongGong]

We welcome the Secretary of State's acknowledgment

One day I might read a report or review that doesn't start like this stupid and toadying phrase :grr:
It's like the NPME which "welcomed" mr Gove's ideas on Music Education
NO we bloody don't :grr:
The only thing that would be "welcome" would be for these bunch of dicks to piss off back under the stone they crawled out from under :grr: