Feisty or Faust-y?

The news that the cultural and creative sectors, including the arts, will have access to Government funds to support new jobs is an important one on several levels. It puts us at the table alongside other industries that have more traditionally been the recipients of this kind of support. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham is making a lot of play with phrases such as “making the arts part of the core script” – he can feel, justifiably, that he is making progress. The DCMS is trying to gain better recognition for the contribution the creative sector makes to the economy – an argument that many in the arts sector have been trying to win for decades. Voices have been raised in support of the economic value of the arts – three of them on our back page, which highlights recent attempts to unite economic thinking with assessing the value of the arts. But there are also dissenters – such as Chrissie Tiller (p12) who feels very strongly that the current identification of the arts within the label of the ‘creative and cultural industries’ is to be deplored. So, are we selling our souls to the devil, or are we making a pact with potentially very useful allies?

Might taking the chance to put our hand in the Government’s money pot put us at risk of losing our principles, or is it a mark of higher status for us and our work? The arts should retain its self-confidence in the ability of its myriad individuals and organisations to continue to play their sometimes subversive, always challenging role. And why should we not take Government money for that? As the old saying goes, ‘the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’. Nobody has to take the money, and anybody who does take it may work to remain true to their ideals. The chance to take on a young person in a new role, a person whose professional life can be guided and shaped at a crucial stage of their development, is one that will undoubtedly be taken up with enthusiasm by many in the arts sector. And as for the ‘creative industries’ – perhaps it is a question of how much we in the arts can influence the wider sector as a whole, not how much of our soul might be drained away.