Councils must recognise value of cultural investment

Any shortfall in local authority arts funding will not be made up by Arts Council England, its chief executive Alan Davey has warned, and he urged councils to recognise the social and economic value of their cultural investment.

Speaking at the Local Government Association’s annual culture, sport and tourism conference, he said the arts were poised to play an even bigger role.

“There are numerous examples of arts organisations generating huge amounts for their local economies” he said. “Recent economic impact studies have shown that in its first year of operation the Sage in Gateshead contributed £43 million to the North East economy; in the South East the De La Warr Pavilion contributed £16 million; Pallant House Gallery in Chichester £2.7 million.

“The arts also attract tourism and business, creating the kinds of communities that people want to live in.”

The speech came as anxiety mounted for local authority commitment to the arts in the coming two years of tighter budgets. Until recent years, local authority funding of the arts had always kept pace with the Arts Council’s and was usually slightly ahead, but it has fallen dramatically. Although it is difficult to measure because arts funding is often buried in leisure and tourism budgets, some estimates put the figure at around £220m a year in England, less than half ACE’s current annual commitment.

“We’ve got to have grown up conversations about our shared ambitions for the arts, and how they contribute to what people really want in their communities” Davey said. “We need to make sure that in ten years we still have an infrastructure that works.”