Sirius -John Swogger, 2010 (print on wooden panel)
Arts & Business has recently closed its public consultation on its “Private Sector Policy for the Arts“. The Policy paper was presented in time for the June 22 budget. Among its recommendations were support for the Big Arts Give, implemented the previous month. Although the Cambrian Studios Project in Oswestry doesn’t qualify for the BAG (we’re a Community Interest Company, not a charity), we have been lucky enough to secure the support of private sponsors who have helped us not with cash, but with premises and time – far more important.
The truth is, when you have a reasonable idea for an arts project, and are prepared to be flexible and to ask people up front for things that you need, most of the time, help is forthcoming. The problem over the past two decades is that arts organisations and projects have increasingly been encouraged to ask for cash rather than help in kind. Cash support is debilitating because it forever ties you to a point of view linking the arts with money; help in kind is more useful because it automatically encourages involvement, interactivity and investment of personal resources of time and effort. It’s the equivilent of stone soup – everyone brings little bits of ingredients they have to spare to the table, and in no time you have a complete project.
But what’s disappointed me over the past six months is that so many people in the arts world are still wedded to the idea that art equals cash. The days of arts money for free are over – not necessarily because of the world’s current economic climate, but because UK political and public opinion has changed.
Leave a Reply