Arts debate

Centre and locality in the arts

I have been asked by Arts Council England to contribute a short piece to the arts debate to stimulate some continuing debate about the questions that they have identified as being the key ones for their public value research. The issues of local versus central control of arts policies, the implementation of these policies, and recent developments in thinking about arts policies form the context for this contribution. It is not intended to provide the answers to the questions that will be raised but to encourage further consideration of the practice of arts politics and the effects of this on the arts.

What follows are simply some of the questions that arise from looking at the arts from the perspective of central and local government - needless to say there are many more questions that could be asked. It is to be hoped that this article will raise some of these and encourage further thought about what role the arts could, should and do play within British society, and what role governmental agencies can contribute to this role.

A reasonable starting point for any debate concerning centre and locality in the arts could be a consideration of why central and local governments choose to intervene in this policy sector in the first place. The evidence demonstrates that some local authorities spend large sums of money in this area (Birmingham, for example), whilst others are somewhat more parsimonious (no examples: I am sure that you can provide your own). The reasons for making such investment or subsidy or waste of tax-payer’s money – depending upon who you read or how you view it – are extremely varied but it is usually the case that there is a large degree of instrumentality involved in this area, with the arts being supported not for the purpose of ‘art’ itself but for other policy reasons altogether. These other reasons can cover the provision of increased employment opportunities, inner-city regeneration, the improvement of public health, or increasing community cohesion (amongst many others). This use of art as a mechanism for other purposes is not universal but it appears to be the case that the search for political and financial support for the arts has become increasingly captured by these concerns that are extraneous to the arts themselves. This raises two immediate questions for the arts: is this instrumentalisation appropriate for the arts? What justifications for the spending of public money can the arts provide?

The variation between local authorities in their support for the arts can, in part at least, be explained by the fact that in England the arts (and cultural policy more generally) are a discretionary function. In Northern Ireland and Scotland ‘culture’ is a statutory function of local authorities. Has this made any difference to the policies that are pursued in Northern Ireland and Scotland as compared with England? Would making the arts a statutory function in England make a real difference? The assumption that making a function statutory will somehow automatically lead to benefits for that function is debatable (if not actually wrong), but what would the consequences be in practice? In the case of Scotland it is debatable if there has been any significant change since 1994 when the arts were made a statutory function – would it be different in England?

A secondary point arising from this is whether central government could see any purpose being fulfilled by a change in status for the arts in terms of local government. Central government has traditionally been extremely loath to intervene directly in arts policy, preferring to operate through arm’s-length agencies like the Arts Councils, Regional Cultural Consortia and local authorities themselves. The preferred mechanisms for affecting these organisations have involved the use of a range of tools that are meant to provide an overall policy framework for these other organisations to operate within. Currently these include more recent introductions such as Public Service Agreements, Local Service Agreements, Audit Commission Targets, Key Lines of Enquiry and Best Value assessments alongside more established tools as legislation and the power of the purse. Are such mechanisms actually appropriate for the arts? Are there others that may be utilised? It is unrealistic to expect that central government will not have an interest in affecting the work of sub-national organisations for which they have responsibility. Indeed the legitimacy of these organisations often depends upon their relationship with central government in the first place. In this case how can the demands of the centre be most effectively expressed and met?

Given that central government has a wide range of mechanisms available to it what can local organisations actually do? The idea that the localities are simply dictated to by the centre is a major overstatement of the reality. Local organisations have room for manoeuvre available to them: how do they choose to exercise this? Central government, for example, does not tell local authorities exactly what they must spend their budgets on (except in some limited areas, of which the arts are not an example), neither does it tell Arts Council England how much to give to the Royal Shakespeare Company or to an individual composer. How, and why, then are the decisions made that affect these choices? How large, in the case of the arts, is the room for manoeuvre that sub-national organisations have?

Recent developments with implications for the arts, such as the utilisation of cultural planning strategies, have seen a varied take-up in local authorities. Such an approach necessarily involves the public in affecting what cultural facilities will be provided in an area, and, more generally, with local cultures affecting local planning decisions. The Scottish Executive, prior to the recent Scottish Parliament election at least, wished to encourage the approach amongst Scottish local authorities. Would a greater involvement in public decisions affecting not only the arts but local communities as a whole be an improvement on what is already in place? Would it require a shift away from representative democracy towards some form of either direct or plebiscitary democracy before it could work effectively?

You can read more about Clive's research interests here, and read more about the MA in European Cultural Planning at De Montfort University here.