The ministers are likely to slow down “freedom of thought” and to catch up with cultural wars if they narrow the body of the length of the arm for the financing of the arts in England in the context of their repression against Quangos, warned the president of the agency.
Sir Nicholas The Financial Times said that the Arts Council in England was a “stamp” between artists and the government and that the end of the length of the arm to support theaters, museums and music groups would facilitate “politicians to intervene”.
“The role of the Council of Arts is to act as a protector of artistic freedom, and if we do not have this freedom, we are heading towards life in a country where freedom of thought and voice is limited,” he said.
“We see a lot of places – look at the United States now – where direct funding can be removed as a result of a change of government. I think it is quite obvious that this does not benefit the arts or the debate and dialogue within a society. It would sharpen the divisions. ”
The intervention of Serota intervenes as the British government prepares to abolish or merge Some of the more than 300 Quangos – or almost autonomous non -governmental organizations – with the aim of saving money and restoring ministerial control in certain areas of politics.
A distinct review of Baroness Margaret Hodge, announced in December and which is expected to be released next year, examines the work, efficiency and governance of the Arts Council in England (ACE), but not if the agency should exist.
In the United States, President Donald Trump settled in February as President of Kennedy Center After having served the board of directors of the Washington Arts hall and promising to put an end to “anti-American propaganda”.
Its administration has also decided to reduce the financing of museums and libraries and restricted which projects can earn subsidies from the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent government agency.
SEROTA – which became president of AS in 2017 and was renamed for 18 months in January – said that it expected that the Hodge exam was “difficult but just” and that the “British system forces” meant that individual politicians could not influence organizations that received funding in the same way as in the United States.
Founded in 1994, when the Great Britain's Arts Council dissolved, ACE obtained an income from 797 million pounds sterling in March 2024, of which around 70% came from the government. During the same period, he invested 716 million pounds sterling via several financing flows, with just under half of the flagship program of the “national portfolio”.
Launched in 2023, the 990 people's portfolio includes renowned organizations such as the Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company and Ballet Black, as well as the smallest, notably the postal museum, the Midlands Arts Center and the Ledbury Poetry Festival.
Analysis Published Friday by the CEBR Council on behalf of ACE established nine “overflow effects” of public arts financing, in particular the stimulation of regional growth and the “overcrowding” of private and abroad for new projects such as Aviva Studios in Manchester.
The cultural space, which opened its doors two years ago on the old Granada Studios site, plans to create 1,500 direct and indirect jobs for a decade.
Quoting the next examination of government spending, Serota said Chancellor Rachel Reeves had “the opportunity to raise the cultural profile of Great Britain” and underlined “many examples, in particular on fixed assets, where the early investment of the public sector has given confidence” to the private sector.
“By the terms of the treasure, it is on a small scale, but a regional theater or a new gallery like Hepworth Wakefield has a big impact” on local communities, “he added.
While the financing of the arts undergoes the pressure of tight budgets, Serota, who was director of the Tate between 1988 and 2017, said that the United Kingdom should follow France by offering tax alternatives to companies that sponsor the places of the arts.
Introduced in 2003, the French law of Aillagon offers 60% tax relief on donations, capped at 0.5% of the annual turnover of a company.
“Given our corporate tax rates (the main rate of the United Kingdom is 25%), it would be a powerful incitement to businesses,” said Serota, adding that Great Britain had “played its software as much as possible” in recent years.
Ace was criticized in 2022 when the agency reduced his grant At the English National Opera and told the opera company to leave the capital, after the conservative government then ordered that 24 million pounds sterling per year are far from London institutions as part of its “Levant-Up-up” program.
Last month, Wigmore Hall, the place of classical music in the center of London, struck the administrative formalities by leaving the national portfolio of ACE, after having collected 10 million pounds Sterling in private.
The secretary of culture Lisa Nandy is committed to ensuring that “artistic and cultural institutions are really for everyone, everywhere”, and London now receives a third of the financing of the ACE national portfolio, compared to 41% in 2018-23.
But while the agency wanted “access to the best in places that had not had it before”, Serota warned that there was “a limit to the quantity (money) that you can withdraw (from London) and expect that all ecology continues to work”.
When he was asked if the Quanto was committed well enough with the sector, Serota said that it had to “strengthen confidence” and prepare to relieve documents for subsidy holders.
“Ace listens, but you can never listen enough. A really effective arts council would be considered by organizations as their voice, and there are times when we are not enough in line with their concerns,” he said. “I'm not saying that the Arts Council is still doing things. But I don't think she lost her appetite to advocate him. ”
