I was shocked by this story in the Guardian this morning:
Artists and musicians have accused the government of neglecting the country's “cultural national health” by pursuing a “catastrophic” 50% funding cut to arts subjects at universities, which could come into effect from autumn.
One of the lesser known parts of my career is the five years I spent as a director of an undergraduate and postgraduate theatre school in London, to which I dedicated a lot of time as it transitioned from the control of its founder into an independent entity that then merged with the University of the Arts. I worked for the school because I very strongly believed in the importance of accessible education in the arts.
Th government does not. It says it wants to reallocate about £18 million a year to nursing and computer studies.
I have three observations. First, there is no shortage of money. We now know that. We can waste tens of billions a year on pointless track and trace testing, none of which works, but not apparently fund the arts.
Second, modern monetary theory does, of course, reiterate that point. Money is available for appropriate decisions by government. There is literally no reason for this supposed rationing at present.
Third, there is something much more sinister about this. This rationing does, of course, mean that access to the arts is mainly targeted on those least able to afford to participate in them. There is class war in such measures. The ‘unimportant' arts are not for those without means is the actual message being sent out.
But there is another message too, which is that the arts must be rationed because they are, by definition, a place for subversion. The whole importance of the arts comes from the fact that they should make us look at the world in a different way to that in which we are used to doing so. Art makes us reappraise what is important. The questioning of value is implicit within art or, in my opinion, what is offered is entertainment but not art, and the two are quite different.
Art builds new narratives. It seeks out change. It promotes understanding. It challenges, threatens, informs, subverts and should simultaneously suggest the mechanisms for building better, or it does not do its job. But of course, this is not what a far-right government of the type that we have wants.
We have a government whose narrative is of control, suppression and denial in all its many forms. The arts threaten that narrative. And so, just as at one time books were burnt, in the modern UK the arts must be suppressed. The ability to build new narratives is to be curtailed. Few decisions are as sinister as this.
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Agree, this really shows up the philistine nature of Conservative thinking (or lack of it). Particularly galling is the 50% cut in archaeology funding. This subject is vital for us to have a fuller knowledge of where we have come from and how we have developed as a human race – unforgivable. crass short-term penny-pinching nonsense.
Having studied languages at university this does not surprise me – as usually they involve study abroad – which helps broaden the mind and appreciate other cultures – the Tory mindset seems to be biased against anything like this and demonstrates the narrow mindedness they want- part of which fuelled the Brexit vote.
This goes even further than Hitler in certain respects. He detested what he viewed as ‘degenerate art’ (Entartete Kunst) aka modern art, which was almost all contemporary German art, preferring his own kind, which was pretty bad. What theatre was allowed had to serve goals of propganda, even Shakespeare. How much further will these scummy Tories go?
More statues of dead white men, and more flags and gunboats, but fewer artists and musicians. What a sad impoverished place we will become.
“They don’t gotta burn the books, they just remove ‘em”
A nation which fails to support its culture has no soul. But a nation which actively sees to destroy its culture by removing the support systems which enable artists of all disciplines and cultural institutions to survive and function shows open contempt for its cultural soul. With its endless pursuit of wealth and power, Britain has never really valued its culture, but this present Tory government has changed Britain’s disinterest to open hostility.
All my adult life I’ve moonlighted worldwide as a musician alongside my business career and can confirm that musicians are paid less here than in most other developed countries for comparable work. If that happens in music, it’s happening across all the arts. Now, thanks to this appalling Tory Government’s disastrous Brexit, it has become virtually impossible for British musicians to tour and perform in the EU, which previously was an important source of employment. Again the other arts mediums must be experiencing similar problems, and all this after a year of minimal (if any at all) income support for freelance creatives by the UK Gov’t during Covid.
It used to be said that the Church of England was the Tory Party at prayer, but that is delusional: they’ve always worshipped Mammon with a thin veil of Christian conformity to disguise things.
Well said Ken.
And, playing what?
Colleagues would say “the fool” but I’d say “the drums” and somewhere between the two lies the truth!
🙂
Impressed