Editorial
Keith Clarke - Editor
From the current issue of Classical Music
It was grimly appropriate that the recent RSA/Arts Council State of the Arts conference should have taken place two floors beneath ground, way below the chilly waters of the Thames flowing alongside the venue. For with a general election looming and the worst economic crisis in living memory, the arts world is firmly in bunker mode, nervously taking a peek outside from time to time to watch for incoming flak. The symbolism was not intentional. The event was supposed to have taken place at the elegant HQ of the Royal Society of Arts, but when it attracted 200 more nervous arts managers than anticipated it was shifted to a hotel on the bleak no-man’s land between Vauxhall and Lambeth Bridge. (Seekers after symbolism would also want to mention the close proximity to the former London Fire Brigade HQ.)
We have news of the conference in this issue, and the next edition will carry a fuller report. It was a bit of a curate’s egg of an event. It is surreal to fill a room with people keen to learn about new business models for the arts and choose four speakers who say absolutely nothing about the chosen subject. The closest we got was the engaging Ammo Talwar of Punch Records, who told us that his outfit had developed a business model by virtue of the fact that it was doing no business. Tassos Stevens of arts group Coney was on the money when he said that the right business model is doing what you believe in, but somehow delegates had been expecting more.
But it was opening session that captured the media attention, with an all-star line-up of shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt as keynote speaker, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw, Dame Liz Forgan and Alan Davey from the Arts Council and Matthew Taylor from the RSA. That at least guaranteed some disagreement, both at the event and in the next day’s papers, and when Hunt sang the chorus of the Tories’ latest hit Our cuts will be bigger than yours, he was accused of getting his figures wrong by just about everyone.
The surprise was that there was any surprise that the number one subject was money. I’ve probably been going to conferences for far too long, but believe me: money is always without fail the number one subject, whatever worthy theme is printed on the glossy programme. Jeremy Hunt’s take on money was that the Arts Council is far too expensive in admin. He reckons 11%. Liz Forgan reckons 5% by the end of the year. Perhaps someone could lend them a calculator. Hunt was also keen on moving towards the US model of endowment-led funding. The fact that countless US arts groups are in severe difficulties as the result of market-slashed endowments seems to have passed him by, but never mind.
Whether delegates trudged away from the icy Albert Embankment with any sense of encouragement in their hearts seems unlikely. There is a gloomy acceptance that the arts cannot escape the axe, despite being a mere pee in the ocean of public finances. But as ever there is the need to fight the good fight, and Liz Forgan pulled no punches in delivering the time-honoured mantra: ‘Let me say in the clearest possible terms to government and to our other partners: we can’t expect excellence to continue in our creative life without sustained public investment.’ And forgive me for putting on the old cracked record again, but that excellence pays rich dividends to the economy, a fact that politicians should not have too much difficulty in grasping. If we say it often enough, who knows, even the worthy souls at Westminster might begin to get it.
In the next issue of Classical Music: 13 February
Community music special
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Captive audience: Fifteen years of Music in Prisons
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Knight Crew: Glyndebourne puts youth and community centre stage
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Here, there and everywhere: Community music round-up
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Bachtrack: back-bedroom music listings site takes off
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Just good friends: International Baroque Players
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Conference report: State of the Arts
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Record and book reviews
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Broadcasting news
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Hornblower’s Diary
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Inside this issue: Competitions 2010
