Artists Direct

Dit Is Alles - John Swogger, 2010 (digital study)

In a fortnight’s time the art world is going to wake up to a forty percent cut in public funding.  Despite the protests, the campaigns, the forums and the reports, this is not a temporary measure – it is permanent; this funding will not return in our lifetimes. As a result, programmes and projects which have enhanced the cultural landscape of this country for the best part of a generation will vanish, and access to the visual arts will be severely curtailed.

It is a tragedy, but not necessarily a disaster. It is arts organisations who will bear the brunt of these cuts – organisations which will have to move fast to reposition themselves if they are to protect their core assets and ensure their own survival. This is perhaps no bad thing – too many arts organisations are top-heavy, with excess managerial capacity, most of whom are employed solely in the pursuit of funding. The “trickle-down” effect to artists themselves through these organisations is minimal.

The truth is that few artists make a living from their art equal to the importance of their social and cultural contribution. The generous public funding the visual arts have enjoyed over the past fifteen years has created an environment where society has been able to benefit enormously from the practise of the visual arts without needing to necessarily directly fund artists themselves. That may be about to change.

I would like to see the creation of a funding environment where arts funding “trickles up” from artists to arts organisations. I would like to see a future funding environment where arts funding supports artists, not managers. I would like to see a future funding environment where regional and local arts funding supported things like bursaries, scholarships and prizes for artists through peer- and community-based juried panels and exhibitions. I would like to see an end to money being poured into arts organisations that has little or no sustainable impact on the landscape of the visual arts.

If the current government is sincere in its desire to pursue an agenda that is about cutting waste and making the most of limited public resources, then it would do well to restructure the way arts funding works in this country. If it wants to ensure that the cultural contribution of the arts is maintained while at the same time getting “value for money”, it needs an arts funding programme that really does fund art and artists.