The show must go on

Anastasia De Waal, 25 July 2010

“O Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo?”  laments Juliet from a shabbily built balcony, borrowed from the set of Evita. If the Treasury has anything to do with proceedings, Romeo may not turn up at all, writes Annaliese Briggs.

The RSC hasn’t relocated to Buenos Aires and Romeo hasn’t run off with Rosaline, but proposed cuts of 25-40% within the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) may irrevocably change the face of the British arts industry.  Unfortunately the department has found little room for manoeuvre within the Olympics 2012 budget and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is eager to keep publicly subsidised free entry to national museums, on the premise
it’s good for business.  It also ticks the anti-elitist checkbox.  And so predictably, the repercussions of slashing a tiny budget of £2.1bn—mere loose change in George Osborne’s back pocket—will be felt most noticeably in the arts, media and heritage.
In a display of method acting like no other, Hunt is leading by example: his Ministry of Fun is quickly deteriorating into the Ministry of Minimalism as planned redundancies of 50% will redefine the structure of the department à
la Mondrian.  You would not be mistaken for thinking the vehemence behind this measure is a one-man show.  Like the skeptical chorus in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, Theatreland giants are reluctant to follow suit and their forebodings may prove justified.  The consequence of downsizing the arts industry threatens to ricochet through the economy for years to come as business generates £2 for every £1 invested and is cited by eight out of ten tourists as the motivation for their visit.

Andrew Motion made his voice heard above the chorus stating, ‘If the Big Society means we aspire to create more civilized places where humanity prevails, and the individual spirit thrives, then artistic and cultural activity is not just indispensible, it must sit at the core, and national and local government must work together in one cause.’  Sadly the cultural life of the nation is difficult to argue for in a time of cuts across the board, but Motion’s plea transforms the department’s dilemma from one of cost, to one of value—adding momentum to Hunt’s actions. He may be making a song and dance about watching the clock, but it’s not without good cause.   Ministers with the get-up-and-go to submit their proposals on time will be invited to sit on the Star Chamber established to arbitrate on departments that refuse to settle until the autumn.  I doubt Hunt is paying for this privilege andhope he has the department’s best interests at heart – do we really want defence ministers deciding whether Snow White really needs seven dwarfs?

The DCMS will have to think creatively.  Whilst philanthropy is unlikely to plug the gap in funding, the department would do well to make a little go a long way by devising tax incentives for investors—contrary to current
rationale.  Meager funding will need to act as a catalyst for industry pursuits, encouraging artists to think outside of the box.  I just hope we don’t have recourse to post-war attitudes; last time we were given Virginia Woolf and I can’t think of worse company of an evening—all misery and metaphor.