On culture cuts

The blogosphere has been buzzing since Arts Council England announced its cuts on Wednesday, with the Guardian’s live coverage especially impressive (summarised here). Some tentative conclusions: the Arts Council justifies its existence by its nuanced approach; percentage statistics obscure as much as they clarify; London’s dominance of the cultural landscape confirmed (again); theatre world readjusts and moves on; Jeremy Hunt can keep his job (but only if he promises to make some other blunders in the future). Two other things: there is surely now an urgent case for legislation to force local authorities to fund culture; the huge response in the comments section of the blogs, with passionate contributions for and against arts funding, show that people really care about the subject — in the case of David Edgar’s blog, there were more than 280 comments! This is all good: if there was no controversy, the arts would be dead.

© Aleks Sierz

Arts Council British theatre culture culture cuts cuts David Edgar Jeremy Hunt