GPS Culture, the organisation behind the 2013 Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital survey, has published a new report arguing for a fundamental change to culture funding in England, in particular the imbalance between London and the rest of the country.
The report, entitled A Policy for the Arts and Culture in England - The Next Steps? finds that funding for culture by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England contributes £65.18p per head to organisations based in London compared with £4.91p per head to organisations outside the capital.
Other findings show that the arts council’s 5% shift of lottery resources represents an improvement outside London of only £0.25p per head; and London-based organisations receive 82% of all private sector sponsorship, donations and grants provided to culture, with the largest organisations being by far the most substantial recipients.
The report comes in advance of the publication of the DCMS’s publication of its white paper on culture later this year.
David Anderson, the director general of Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) and a member of the Museums Association’s board, said: “Arts and heritage institutions in England, beyond London national institutions and a few in regional
metropolitan centres, now face meltdown.
“This crisis was entirely predictable. We are at grave risk of abandoning local cultural provision and closing the door on the poorest sections of society.
“To ask that local museums should become more sustainable, with support from philanthropists, is unrealistic. In many poorer areas, such philanthropists are as scarce as Ospreys or Golden Eagles.
“Only urgent and radical measures will now ensure the survival of local cultural services. Museums in England need Whitehall to sustain and ringfence funding for culture in its allocations to local government. Lottery funding should be devolved entirely to the English regions (and the nations), in proportion to each region's good causes' income.
“And DCMS should commission an independent report, as Wales has already done, on the long term development of local and regional museum (and other cultural) services.”
The March edition of Museums Journal will analyse the impact of Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital two years on
The report, entitled A Policy for the Arts and Culture in England - The Next Steps? finds that funding for culture by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England contributes £65.18p per head to organisations based in London compared with £4.91p per head to organisations outside the capital.
Other findings show that the arts council’s 5% shift of lottery resources represents an improvement outside London of only £0.25p per head; and London-based organisations receive 82% of all private sector sponsorship, donations and grants provided to culture, with the largest organisations being by far the most substantial recipients.
The report comes in advance of the publication of the DCMS’s publication of its white paper on culture later this year.
David Anderson, the director general of Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) and a member of the Museums Association’s board, said: “Arts and heritage institutions in England, beyond London national institutions and a few in regional
metropolitan centres, now face meltdown.
“This crisis was entirely predictable. We are at grave risk of abandoning local cultural provision and closing the door on the poorest sections of society.
“To ask that local museums should become more sustainable, with support from philanthropists, is unrealistic. In many poorer areas, such philanthropists are as scarce as Ospreys or Golden Eagles.
“Only urgent and radical measures will now ensure the survival of local cultural services. Museums in England need Whitehall to sustain and ringfence funding for culture in its allocations to local government. Lottery funding should be devolved entirely to the English regions (and the nations), in proportion to each region's good causes' income.
“And DCMS should commission an independent report, as Wales has already done, on the long term development of local and regional museum (and other cultural) services.”
The March edition of Museums Journal will analyse the impact of Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital two years on
