In 2008 Arts Council England adopted a new mission: we work to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in experiences that enrich people's lives. This new mission reflects a renewed sense of purpose behind our conviction in the power of the arts to enrich 21st-century life and the commitment we have to bringing the best art to the widest possible audience.
As we look to how best to pursue this mission over the next 10 years, we recognise that the speed and scale of change today bring exceptional challenges and opportunities for artists and arts organisations, and for the Arts Council to enable the arts to flourish. This consultation paper sets out our understanding of the current landscape and identifies areas for development over the next 10 years. We are asking for your thoughts to inform the development of a long-term strategic framework and our priorities for the next investment plan.
Further research information supplements the summary in this paper.
Extraordinary talent, a new arts landscape
The continuing success of the arts in this country, the extraordinary talent and the visionary leadership in our field give us a fantastic starting point. England offers a dazzling array of arts experiences to both audiences and participants. Remarkable artists from around the world work here, producing art that is admired across the globe.
Yet the arts are changing. There has been a blurring of boundaries between artforms and an emergence of new kinds of practice and presentation. Artists work in many contexts and communities today and move fluidly across industries. The arts have become more internationally mobile, more networked and more prepared to take risks to achieve artistic goals.
Sustained investment in the arts over the past two decades has helped arts organisations, from Sadler's Wells and the London Symphony Orchestra to the Ikon Gallery and New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, to thrive. The National Lottery has transformed the arts landscape with new, or much-enhanced, arts buildings opening across England and more support for emerging artists. Arts buildings are often the focus of urban and rural regeneration, injecting renewed vitality into places, from The Lowry in Salford to the recently opened Nottingham Contemporary. Some new facilities serve particular cultural or geographical communities with previously poor access to the arts. Others provide a new hub for artforms which lacked a proper home, such as the UK Centre for Carnival Arts in Luton.
This means more work is being programmed in better-equipped buildings. But the picture is by no means complete. In some artforms there remain important gaps in the physical infrastructure, while in others dilapidated buildings need renewal and repair. At the same time, artists and arts organisations are less contained by physical boundaries, with more art taking place outside professional arts buildings. The two BT Visit London awards won by the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival show how imaginative arts collaborations can inspire the public and create a distinctive sense of community and place.
Across the arts, the amateur and voluntary sectors are thriving. All around the country, people are singing, playing, performing, dancing, painting and writing. We recognise the value, breadth and standard of this activity as a critical part of the arts' contribution to people's lives, as well as the importance of the amateur sector as a source of employment for professional artists. Likewise, the arts we fund can often depend on volunteers, bringing long-lasting benefits to those involved. Through the arts, common bonds among communities are built and opportunities are created for people of all backgrounds to participate, learn and progress. The year 2012 will be a major opportunity to give a global profile to some of the more participatory artforms; it will also build international markets for some of our most excellent and innovative artists and organisations.
Connecting art with people
Overall, the arts are popular. More people than ever before say they enjoy arts experiences (76% in 2008/9) and aspire to get more involved. Yet, here again, we know that much work remains, with a minority being engaged on a regular basis and those that are most active tending to be from the most privileged parts of society. We will work tirelessly in our belief that everyone has the right to be inspired and moved by great art.
The context is both challenging and fertile. Changes in society – a growing, ageing and more diverse population – bring questions of integration, inclusivity and cohesion. They also bring a renewed focus on quality of life, individual and community empowerment and the importance of collaboration to achieve change. Centuries of intercultural exchange and population movements have shaped our collective culture and intellectual traditions. They have also demonstrated that the arts offer unique opportunities for building understanding and helping people to navigate this fast-moving world. As such, the arts could and should be playing a more central role in public policy that's increasingly crafted in these terms, helping to address issues of inequality and identity in modern Britain. To be fully successful in this, the arts must be diverse and responsive to this evolving sense of identity and community.
The rapid development of digital technologies is revolutionising all our lives and fuelling a profound shift in attitudes and behaviour. Consumers today are more demanding; they increasingly expect a personalised service, with goods and experiences tailored to meet their needs. Technology allows more people to create art, express themselves and communicate with others in new ways. The distinction between artist and audience is no longer always clear. Some arts organisations are accommodating this change by acting as editors and catalysts for ideas, providing platforms for multiple responses instead of a single, authoritative voice. Others are offering more work online and more information to enable people to make informed arts choices. And new audiences are being created for new kinds of arts experiences: NT Live reached 50,000 people worldwide through its live transmission of Phèdre direct from the National Theatre. However, we know there is much more to do if the arts are to make the most of the opportunities offered by new technologies and adapt to a digital future.
Building the arts into public life
In other important ways, the arts are increasingly becoming, or have the potential to become, more central to civic life. The arts remain crucial to the curriculum. Music education in particular has surged in the past decade, bringing with it government investment to support instrumental tuition and singing in primary schools. Creative Partnerships, developed by Arts Council England to deliver creative programmes in schools, recently became an independent organisation, Creativity, Culture and Education, with a mission to go even further. Young people are highly engaged in the arts but, again, there remain inequities, with young people in the most challenging social and economic circumstances least likely to participate. And there is much for the arts to do to understand the tastes, motivations and different consumption patterns of younger generations, and to respond with a more inclusive approach.
Public policy is increasingly focused on meeting the needs of communities at the local level. In contrast to the dominance of global brands and the prevalence of 'clone towns', neighbourhoods, communities and local authorities are aspiring to develop thriving, vibrant places with a strong sense of local identity. Here there are major opportunities for the arts to become even more integral to local life in funding partnerships with local authorities. Greater success demands that artists and arts organisations develop a deeper understanding of, and responsiveness to, the communities in which they work, and are able to navigate the systems of government.
There is considerable currency behind the value of the creative industries to the economy in the UK and beyond. Much comment has been made about the way in which the arts straddle the commercial and public sectors, with practitioners switching between multiple roles and balancing a portfolio of activities. And there is widespread acceptance of the artistic interdependence between the two, with the art funded through public subsidy valued far beyond the subsidised sector itself and providing a key inspiration for the film, television, design, advertising and computer games industries.
Anticipating future change
Yet the recent economic crisis has threatened the sustainability of the arts. Recession puts at risk the success of a mixed economy model in which public subsidy leverages self-generated and private sector income. Our recent Sustain funding programme sought to offset the risk to continuing artistic excellence and innovation, but we know that there will be further challenges ahead. The urgent and widely accepted need to reduce the UK public spending deficit over the lifetime of our proposed 10-year strategic framework could have a major and far from predictable impact on the arts economy as a whole.
Likewise, regardless of the social, economic and political shifts, the changes that are taking place to the planet will mean preparing for a radically different future. Artists and organisations are playing an inspiring role as society prepares to meet the challenge of a low-carbon economy – now viewed by many as the single biggest issue humankind faces. However, the need to adapt capital infrastructure and to evolve new approaches to touring and international work are challenges that are only beginning to be addressed.
Focusing our efforts behind long-term change
None of what has been achieved in recent years would have happened without partnerships, reflecting an increasing recognition of the value of working together to realise shared ambitions – between arts organisations, between the Arts Council and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and other government departments, with local government, national and regional museums, heritage organisations, further and higher education institutions, film and media organisations, the voluntary and amateur sectors, the private and commercial sectors. And we know that collaboration is going to be critical to our sector adapting to the changes ahead. We also know that it will be important for the Arts Council to have a clear understanding of our unique role within the ecology, to set strategic vision and direction and to be clear about priorities. So, to be more effective and to encourage a greater sense of shared purpose, we are proposing a number of long-term goals and some new ways of working that we believe must underpin them – both for ourselves and for the organisations we fund.
Shaped by this consultation, Achieving great art for everyone will be a 10-year strategic framework for the Arts Council. It will focus on how we can work with our partners to achieve our mission and outcomes of excellence, innovation, diversity, reach and engagement as set out in our 2008 plan. It will serve as a planning and operating framework, and the point of reference for our funding decisions. It will bring together the arts we fund and the audiences we reach around a handful of bold, long-term goals. It will be a framework that seeks to enable and support the conditions in which ambition, innovation and excellence in the arts can continue to thrive, reaching a growing, diverse audience. To get this framework right, we need the views and ideas of all our partners in the arts and beyond.
