The creation of a national plan for arts, culture and heritage is among the key recommendations of a report on the future of cultural value published recently by the University of Warwick.
The Warwick Commission – the body behind “Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth” – was launched by the university in November 2013. It is chaired by Vikki Heywood, a former executive director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and its members include Nicholas Serota, the director of Tate, and Peter Bazalgette, the chairman of Arts Council England (ACE).
The thrust of the report is that for the cultural industry to thrive, there needs to be a joined-up approach that brings together an array of organisations across the public and private sectors.
“The Warwick Commission has been highly ambitious in that it tries to break out of the silos that bedevil thinking about culture by linking non-profit, commercial, amateur and wider creative industries,” says cultural historian Robert Hewison, an associate at the thinktank Demos.
The report says that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should produce a national plan for culture and heritage to maximise investment and ideas.
“This sounds sensible but can we be assured there would be no loss of creative autonomy?” says Yasmin Khan, an independent cultural adviser. “Do we want to override the government’s arm’s length approach to cultural policy and practice?”
The report has proposed five goals to boost the creative and culture industries, which are described as a “mainspring” of the economy, generating £76.9bn in 2013.
The goals include the creation of a cross-party plan to support the creative industries; the promotion of greater diversity; the broadening of the education curriculum to ensure creative subjects are not squeezed out; exploiting the opportunities offered by digital media; and addressing the imbalance in cultural provision.
The report is critical of the slow progress in diversifying audiences. It found that publicly funded culture and heritage organisations are accessed by “an unnecessarily narrow social, economic, ethnic and educated demographic”. Higher social groups accounted for 87% of all museum visits in 2008-12, the lower social groups for only 13%, the report said, citing a 2013 study by the independent cultural consultant Sara Selwood.
“A strategic shift is needed from a funding and policy infrastructure that focuses on the supply of cultural experiences to an approach that addresses unrepresentative levels of diversity and participation,” the commissioners say, making demand, rather than supply, a key factor.
Cultural organisations in receipt of public funding, including those supported by ACE, should provide “a triple bottom line account” of their economic viability and creative quality.
“Publicly funded cultural organisations should be able to justify their work, but the notion that every single impact could be quantified is akin to dabbling in alchemy,” Khan says.
A spokeswoman for ACE says broadening audiences is a priority for it, pointing to the launch in December of its Creative Case for Diversity project.
Harriet Harman, the shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, welcomed the report, saying that arts and culture should be accessible to all. But both Labour and the Conservatives have said they will not reverse the cuts in funding to ACE.
The report warned that further reductions in state funding would create a “downward spiral in which fewer creative risks are taken, resulting in less talent development, declining returns and therefore further cuts in investment”.
Hewison says that “this report is more explosive than it appears. It is critical of past policies – on free admission, for instance – and the next secretary of state for culture should take it seriously.”
Robert Hewison’s new book is reviewed on p54
The Warwick Commission – the body behind “Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth” – was launched by the university in November 2013. It is chaired by Vikki Heywood, a former executive director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and its members include Nicholas Serota, the director of Tate, and Peter Bazalgette, the chairman of Arts Council England (ACE).
The thrust of the report is that for the cultural industry to thrive, there needs to be a joined-up approach that brings together an array of organisations across the public and private sectors.
“The Warwick Commission has been highly ambitious in that it tries to break out of the silos that bedevil thinking about culture by linking non-profit, commercial, amateur and wider creative industries,” says cultural historian Robert Hewison, an associate at the thinktank Demos.
The report says that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should produce a national plan for culture and heritage to maximise investment and ideas.
“This sounds sensible but can we be assured there would be no loss of creative autonomy?” says Yasmin Khan, an independent cultural adviser. “Do we want to override the government’s arm’s length approach to cultural policy and practice?”
The report has proposed five goals to boost the creative and culture industries, which are described as a “mainspring” of the economy, generating £76.9bn in 2013.
The goals include the creation of a cross-party plan to support the creative industries; the promotion of greater diversity; the broadening of the education curriculum to ensure creative subjects are not squeezed out; exploiting the opportunities offered by digital media; and addressing the imbalance in cultural provision.
The report is critical of the slow progress in diversifying audiences. It found that publicly funded culture and heritage organisations are accessed by “an unnecessarily narrow social, economic, ethnic and educated demographic”. Higher social groups accounted for 87% of all museum visits in 2008-12, the lower social groups for only 13%, the report said, citing a 2013 study by the independent cultural consultant Sara Selwood.
“A strategic shift is needed from a funding and policy infrastructure that focuses on the supply of cultural experiences to an approach that addresses unrepresentative levels of diversity and participation,” the commissioners say, making demand, rather than supply, a key factor.
Cultural organisations in receipt of public funding, including those supported by ACE, should provide “a triple bottom line account” of their economic viability and creative quality.
“Publicly funded cultural organisations should be able to justify their work, but the notion that every single impact could be quantified is akin to dabbling in alchemy,” Khan says.
A spokeswoman for ACE says broadening audiences is a priority for it, pointing to the launch in December of its Creative Case for Diversity project.
Harriet Harman, the shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, welcomed the report, saying that arts and culture should be accessible to all. But both Labour and the Conservatives have said they will not reverse the cuts in funding to ACE.
The report warned that further reductions in state funding would create a “downward spiral in which fewer creative risks are taken, resulting in less talent development, declining returns and therefore further cuts in investment”.
Hewison says that “this report is more explosive than it appears. It is critical of past policies – on free admission, for instance – and the next secretary of state for culture should take it seriously.”
Robert Hewison’s new book is reviewed on p54