'We’ve only been here because you’ve been with us': as ArtsProfessional heads into its third decade, Liz Hill reflects on what’s gone before – and what lies ahead.
With a Government report recommending the dropping of the term BAME, people have been challenging Kevin Osborne’s continued use of it. He remains ambivalent about the proposed change.
The distribution of Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund has attracted widespread criticism, not least from those campaigning for greater diversity. Kevin Osborne calls for urgent action.
DCMS’ new model for measuring culture’s economic value shows no understanding of how public policy has developed in recent decades, writes Anthony Sargent. Basing funding decisions on it would be "worse than bankrupt".
As we say good riddance to 2020, Liz Hill takes a glass-half-full look at progress in the cultural sector this year, and what the year ahead might hold.
UK Music has published its industry-wide ten-point plan for a diverse music ecosystem. But it’s actions, not words, that will bring about lasting change, says Ammo Talwar.
By cutting bursaries for teacher training, the Department for Education will make a career in teaching an unreachable dream for some musicians, says Roz De Vile.
An ongoing and unspoken sense of crisis has driven those working in the performing arts to accept an intolerable range of behaviours as the norm. Emma Jayne Park questions the underlying structures supporting a system that requires endless resilience simply to survive.
A DCMS report asserting that ‘the arts can,’ ‘music can,’ and ‘dance can’ improve arts and health includes highly flawed studies that should not be relied upon to guide policy, says Stephen Clift.
Venue operators should be rightly angry that the Government continues to insist that social distancing is the main route to making their auditoriums safe, says Liz Hill.
To future-proof the creative sector we must root out systemic funding bias against BAME organisations, says Kevin Osborne, starting with an equitable sharing of the £1.57 billion bailout package.
If ACE only distributes the Government's support package to the organisations they have a current relationship with, then 80% of the sector will remain vulnerable and large scale venues as well as small will be at risk says Michael Ockwell.
As governments start to draw up plans for supporting the post-virus cultural sector, the voices of those working in it are the most important. Liz Hill introduces a new series of articles.
Coming of age
'We’ve only been here because you’ve been with us': as ArtsProfessional heads into its third decade, Liz Hill reflects on what’s gone before – and what lies ahead.