Peter Bazalgette is best known as a television producer and opera lover, but the chairman of Arts Council England also has experience of developing a heritage site.
The Crossness Engines Trust is personal for Bazalgette, the man behind high-profile television shows such as Big Brother, who joined the arts council earlier this year.
The attraction on the river Thames near Woolwich is centred on the Crossness Pumping Station created by Bazalgette’s great-great grandfather, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, a Victorian engineer who developed London’s modern sewerage system. In the late 1980s, a small group of steam enthusiasts began a project to restore the engines at the pumping station.
He says: “They saw my name at the end of a television programme and thought, Bazalgette, that rings a bell, we’ll phone him up. I became a trustee and then the chairman of the trust. What we had to do from scratch was create what I later discovered was a museum strategy.”
The project was an eye-opener for Bazalgette, even though he says he played a very small role in creating the museum.
His main role was fundraising and the trust secured £1.5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £250,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government, as well as support from Thames Water.
Bazalgette says he could talk about the work of his great-great grandfather forever, but he seems more circumspect when it comes to discussing his career in television.
“I still do bits of work in TV, I sit on a few boards, but that is my separate life, that is my media life – that was then, this is now,” he says. “But the real connection for me in working in television and working in the arts is an understanding of government policy, politics and all the other things you get around public funding.”
He feels that advocating effectively on behalf of arts and culture is particularly important when money is tight.
“We know that local authorities by law have to empty the bins, mend the roads, and provide social care for the elderly but they don’t by law have to put money into arts and culture.”
Investment in arts and culture
He is aware the many museums are particularly dependent on funding from their local authority, so one of the things he wants the arts council to do is highlight the benefits of investment in arts and culture.
“There are local authorities where they are increasing their arts and culture spend,” he says, pointing to examples such as Thanet District Council, home to Turner Contemporary, and Wakefield Council, which has the Hepworth Wakefield gallery.
“We have to take those stories and make them available so everybody can talk to their local authority and say this is what is possible, look at the transforming effect of public investment in arts and culture.”
Bazalgette speaks the government’s language of investment in the arts and is also supportive of its emphasis on philanthropy, while acknowledging that fundraising is difficult, particularly outside London.
The most recent arts council annual report breaks down the income of regularly funded organisations into four categories: arts council investment; other public investment; commercial revenue; and philanthropic contributions.
The figures show that in 2011-12, it was 29% from ACE; 49% commercial revenues; 12% other public subsidy; and 11% donations, philanthropy, trusts and sponsorship. Museums are likely to have to report their finances in the same way in the future, although the split will be different.
“The 29% that comes from the arts council is the small amount of money that produces this big result,” says Bazalgette. “The money that we invest in arts and culture is like seed-corn investment because it is the money that enables all the rest.”
Commercial income has been growing among national portfolio organisations but securing money from philanthropic sources is proving tougher. Overall, corporate giving to the arts has declined over the past six years as philanthropy has been hit by the economic downturn.
Philanthropic opportunities
Bazalgette says now the economy is improving, business should invest in the arts again. But a recent arts council survey found that only 9% of people realised that arts and culture organisations have charitable status, which he says is a problem. He also says that only 1% of all charitable giving goes to the arts in the UK and it should be higher.
“We need to get people to think of the arts as not just something that comes out of taxes and magically appears but as something you can support and get involved in.”
The arts council is offering help with Catalyst, a scheme to encourage cultural organisations to diversify their income streams and access more funding from private sources. There is also a fellowship in fundraising at Leeds University, while Bazalgette feels there are more digital opportunities, such as online giving and through sharing data among arts organisations.
But does he see any dangers in this emphasis on philanthropy? Could museums and galleries become too dependent on the whims of private funders?
“There are opera houses in the US where you will not hear 20th-century composers like Benjamin Britten if their major donor only likes Puccini,” says Bazalgette. “With philanthropy representing only 10% of the cake or less in the UK, we have a long way to go before we get anywhere near that.”
Bazalgette talks about a holistic approach to public investment in the arts, which includes the benefits to culture, society, education and the economy.
But he says culture should always come first: “To me it is inconceivable that a museum wouldn’t have an economic benefit if it was successful, but is that its raison d’être? No.
"Do you set up a museum because you want a benefit to the economy? No, you’d put up a bowling alley for that. You set it up first and foremost because of the intrinsic value of culture.”
But it is not only fundraising and economics that Bazalgette is interested in. “He is clearly somebody favoured by the Conservatives but he shows a willingness to listen and consider agendas other than the government’s obsession with philanthropy,” says Mark Taylor, the director of the Museums Association (MA), who has been impressed by Bazalgette’s energy.
“When we went to see him last he had not only read Museums Change Lives [the MA’s vision for the future impact of museums] but was very supportive of the ideas within it.”
Bazalgette is keen for museums and other arts organisations to develop new ways of working, particularly through partnerships. He points to Grayson Perry’s Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman show at the British Museum as an example of a fruitful relationship between an artist and a museum.
“I saw what it was like to get an artist to curate and reinterpret elements of a museum – it was really dynamic, very exciting. It was fantastic, he is my hero.”
As a dynamic figure himself, Bazalgette is hoping that his own energy and creativity will help arts and culture to develop in what he acknowledges are very challenging times.
Peter Bazalgette worked in the television industry for more than 30 years prior to becoming the chairman of Arts Council England in February.
He has also been chairman of English National Opera, chairman of the Crossness Engines Trust (a steam museum) and deputy chairman of the National Film and Television School.
Bazalgette is the president of the Royal Television Society and was the chief creative officer of Endemol and was on the board of Channel 4. He has been involved in several successful television formats, including Big Brother, Ready Steady Cook, Changing Rooms and Ground Force.
He was also a non-executive director of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and writes a regular food column for the Financial Times.
Bazalgette was a member of the advisory board of the Space, the joint arts council/BBC digital arts service that BBC director general Tony Hall recently announced would be relaunched next year.
Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England, distributing public money from the government and the national lottery. In October 2011 it took responsibility for supporting and developing museums as part of the functions it inherited from the disbanded Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
In 2012-13 the arts council received £469m of funding from the government and £272m in lottery income. It gave in grant-in-aid totalling £310m to 696 arts organisations under the national portfolio funding stream and supported 227 museums through the Renaissance programme with £45m. This money includes the support for the arts council’s 16 Major Partner Museums.
The arts council’s budget has been steadily cut since the 2010 spending review, although it was given extra money when it became responsible for museums and libraries.
The arts council has been cutting the proportion of its income that it spends on administration, which has mainly been achieved through reduced staff and property costs following a restructure that came into operation on 1 July.
Peter Bazalgette cites Turner Contemporary (above) and the Hepworth Wakefield (above right) as examples of how public arts investment can transform an area.
The Crossness Engines Trust is personal for Bazalgette, the man behind high-profile television shows such as Big Brother, who joined the arts council earlier this year.
The attraction on the river Thames near Woolwich is centred on the Crossness Pumping Station created by Bazalgette’s great-great grandfather, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, a Victorian engineer who developed London’s modern sewerage system. In the late 1980s, a small group of steam enthusiasts began a project to restore the engines at the pumping station.
He says: “They saw my name at the end of a television programme and thought, Bazalgette, that rings a bell, we’ll phone him up. I became a trustee and then the chairman of the trust. What we had to do from scratch was create what I later discovered was a museum strategy.”
The project was an eye-opener for Bazalgette, even though he says he played a very small role in creating the museum.
His main role was fundraising and the trust secured £1.5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £250,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government, as well as support from Thames Water.
Bazalgette says he could talk about the work of his great-great grandfather forever, but he seems more circumspect when it comes to discussing his career in television.
“I still do bits of work in TV, I sit on a few boards, but that is my separate life, that is my media life – that was then, this is now,” he says. “But the real connection for me in working in television and working in the arts is an understanding of government policy, politics and all the other things you get around public funding.”
He feels that advocating effectively on behalf of arts and culture is particularly important when money is tight.
“We know that local authorities by law have to empty the bins, mend the roads, and provide social care for the elderly but they don’t by law have to put money into arts and culture.”
Investment in arts and culture
He is aware the many museums are particularly dependent on funding from their local authority, so one of the things he wants the arts council to do is highlight the benefits of investment in arts and culture.
“There are local authorities where they are increasing their arts and culture spend,” he says, pointing to examples such as Thanet District Council, home to Turner Contemporary, and Wakefield Council, which has the Hepworth Wakefield gallery.
“We have to take those stories and make them available so everybody can talk to their local authority and say this is what is possible, look at the transforming effect of public investment in arts and culture.”
Bazalgette speaks the government’s language of investment in the arts and is also supportive of its emphasis on philanthropy, while acknowledging that fundraising is difficult, particularly outside London.
The most recent arts council annual report breaks down the income of regularly funded organisations into four categories: arts council investment; other public investment; commercial revenue; and philanthropic contributions.
The figures show that in 2011-12, it was 29% from ACE; 49% commercial revenues; 12% other public subsidy; and 11% donations, philanthropy, trusts and sponsorship. Museums are likely to have to report their finances in the same way in the future, although the split will be different.
“The 29% that comes from the arts council is the small amount of money that produces this big result,” says Bazalgette. “The money that we invest in arts and culture is like seed-corn investment because it is the money that enables all the rest.”
Commercial income has been growing among national portfolio organisations but securing money from philanthropic sources is proving tougher. Overall, corporate giving to the arts has declined over the past six years as philanthropy has been hit by the economic downturn.
Philanthropic opportunities
Bazalgette says now the economy is improving, business should invest in the arts again. But a recent arts council survey found that only 9% of people realised that arts and culture organisations have charitable status, which he says is a problem. He also says that only 1% of all charitable giving goes to the arts in the UK and it should be higher.
“We need to get people to think of the arts as not just something that comes out of taxes and magically appears but as something you can support and get involved in.”
The arts council is offering help with Catalyst, a scheme to encourage cultural organisations to diversify their income streams and access more funding from private sources. There is also a fellowship in fundraising at Leeds University, while Bazalgette feels there are more digital opportunities, such as online giving and through sharing data among arts organisations.
But does he see any dangers in this emphasis on philanthropy? Could museums and galleries become too dependent on the whims of private funders?
“There are opera houses in the US where you will not hear 20th-century composers like Benjamin Britten if their major donor only likes Puccini,” says Bazalgette. “With philanthropy representing only 10% of the cake or less in the UK, we have a long way to go before we get anywhere near that.”
Bazalgette talks about a holistic approach to public investment in the arts, which includes the benefits to culture, society, education and the economy.
But he says culture should always come first: “To me it is inconceivable that a museum wouldn’t have an economic benefit if it was successful, but is that its raison d’être? No.
"Do you set up a museum because you want a benefit to the economy? No, you’d put up a bowling alley for that. You set it up first and foremost because of the intrinsic value of culture.”
But it is not only fundraising and economics that Bazalgette is interested in. “He is clearly somebody favoured by the Conservatives but he shows a willingness to listen and consider agendas other than the government’s obsession with philanthropy,” says Mark Taylor, the director of the Museums Association (MA), who has been impressed by Bazalgette’s energy.
“When we went to see him last he had not only read Museums Change Lives [the MA’s vision for the future impact of museums] but was very supportive of the ideas within it.”
Bazalgette is keen for museums and other arts organisations to develop new ways of working, particularly through partnerships. He points to Grayson Perry’s Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman show at the British Museum as an example of a fruitful relationship between an artist and a museum.
“I saw what it was like to get an artist to curate and reinterpret elements of a museum – it was really dynamic, very exciting. It was fantastic, he is my hero.”
As a dynamic figure himself, Bazalgette is hoping that his own energy and creativity will help arts and culture to develop in what he acknowledges are very challenging times.
Peter Bazalgette at a glance
Peter Bazalgette worked in the television industry for more than 30 years prior to becoming the chairman of Arts Council England in February.
He has also been chairman of English National Opera, chairman of the Crossness Engines Trust (a steam museum) and deputy chairman of the National Film and Television School.
Bazalgette is the president of the Royal Television Society and was the chief creative officer of Endemol and was on the board of Channel 4. He has been involved in several successful television formats, including Big Brother, Ready Steady Cook, Changing Rooms and Ground Force.
He was also a non-executive director of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and writes a regular food column for the Financial Times.
Bazalgette was a member of the advisory board of the Space, the joint arts council/BBC digital arts service that BBC director general Tony Hall recently announced would be relaunched next year.
Arts Council England at a glance
Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England, distributing public money from the government and the national lottery. In October 2011 it took responsibility for supporting and developing museums as part of the functions it inherited from the disbanded Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
In 2012-13 the arts council received £469m of funding from the government and £272m in lottery income. It gave in grant-in-aid totalling £310m to 696 arts organisations under the national portfolio funding stream and supported 227 museums through the Renaissance programme with £45m. This money includes the support for the arts council’s 16 Major Partner Museums.
The arts council’s budget has been steadily cut since the 2010 spending review, although it was given extra money when it became responsible for museums and libraries.
The arts council has been cutting the proportion of its income that it spends on administration, which has mainly been achieved through reduced staff and property costs following a restructure that came into operation on 1 July.
Peter Bazalgette cites Turner Contemporary (above) and the Hepworth Wakefield (above right) as examples of how public arts investment can transform an area.
