ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!!

A great guy, a dancer for whom I have huge respect was moved to have a rant-ette on facebook about the fact that Newcastle City Council has proposed a total cut of arts funding towards a saving of £90m in their "Austerity Measures" response. It prompted the following response from me...


"The Arts" continue to be the first lamb for sacrifice. I think we 'arts workers' are often complicit in what happens to us. All those reasonable arguments about protecting essential services ARE reasonable. Present a paediatric cardiac unit next to a picture of a performer and ask the public to choose which to cut and its a done deal. But I don't think we should have EVER thought of ourselves as anything but ESSENTIAL. I have witnessed and read and contributed to countless consultations and research that identify the contribution of arts and culture to this region's economy. Doesn't anybody READ this stuff? If they did how can the council be contemplating a TOTAL cut of support for arts in Newcastle?

We MUST, once and for all, show the value of the contribution we make to 

our city and the region it serves. The arts are NOT a luxury item to be 

abstained from during lean times. Out of our sector may just come some new 

solutions to the economic mess imposed upon us! Let the council work with 

the managers of arts and community venues and services whose whole 

professional lives are about squeezing every drop from every penny they 

receive and I bet we'll come up with a whole new landscape


A BIG potential- even likely obstacle is that "the new landscape" might just end up featuring some very different landmarks run in very different ways than before. Some pipe dreams may well be revealed to be just that, whilst accountability to the people and the social impact of council spending on arts may become higher priorities as it should be across all council spending. 

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