Colin Firth on UKFC and BFI

Colin Firth attended the Dubai International Film Festival last week for the Middle East premiere of his latest film, The King’s Speech. The Oscar-nominated actor also received Variety’s ‘International Star of the Year’ award, presented by Carey Mulligan, and candidly answered questions during a public Q&A session.

Arts & Cuts was at the event and asked the British A-lister whether he was worried about the closure of the UK Film Council and the BFI’s recently expanded role.

“I don’t understand how it’s going to work well enough to be worried or not worried at the moment. I just need to see where it’s going. Yes of course I was alarmed when the UK Film Council announced it would be closed. They were critical in the financing of The King’s Speech, which I think makes a rather good case for the existence of a body like that. It was clear that something would have to replace it…and the BFI may have the people to do that.

I think that…the individuals who work within the BFI…I think they’re fiercely bright people who care deeply about film. And so I am glad that the government has decided to connect itself to a body which does understand cinema. But I also don’t know where it’s going, I don’t know where the money is going to come from, but as I said, you know, I hope imaginative resources are as powerful as financial ones.”

The spirit of resistance

As thousands of students descend on Parliament Square today to protest against tuition fee rises, many have also been staging sit-ins at universities and organising flash mobs across the city.

Last weekend, students at Goldsmiths College and UCL’s Slade School of Fine Art occupied campus buildings to demonstrate their anger at proposals they say will threaten the future of arts education in the UK. Colourful banners and flags were hung outside while lively debates continued indoors.

Perhaps the most visible activity to date was the picketing at the Tate Britain Gallery during the Turner Prize ceremony, where hundreds assembled to vent their frustration with the government’s attitude towards the arts funding.

On Tuesday, Arts & Cuts went to Royal College of Art’s Long Night to talk to students and teachers about their feelings and plans. Throughout the evening, people squeezed into the common room to participate in discussions and sign a petition addressed to Nick Clegg.

Conceptual artist Mark McGowan spoke first and offered his support. “This level of culture bashing is equivalent to book burning,” he said. An RCA lecturer agreed, “[This is] the most vicious ideological attack. It’s a system where you’re artistic only if you can afford it”.

Despite the sombre mood, people were hopeful that there would be strength in numbers. Organisers of the Slade Occupation shared advice (“students are the first wave, not the last”) and the duo behind Space Hijackers humorously recounted their adventures, including driving a tank into central London for the G20 summit.

Three students from Chelsea College of Art & Design explained how the movement was gaining momentum. They felt that art schools in the capital were quite fragmented, especially within the University of Arts London, but were noticing a growing sense of unity.

Noel Douglas, a professional graphic designer and programme leader at the University of Bedfordshire, gave a presentation on the history of grass-roots campaigns and encouraged students to be optimistic about the future. He told us why he believes art and design are fundamental to society:

At 11pm, students of the Royal College of Art voted in favour of occupation.

NCA urge public to show their support for the arts

The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) is the UK’s only independent campaigning organisation representing all the arts. They do not receive any core subsidy from the public or political purse and are funded by members to carry out vital lobbying and advocacy work.
Arts & Cuts interviewed Louise de Winter, NCA Director, about the budget cuts and their effect on the arts industry.

Q: What has been the initial reaction and responses you’ve been getting from the public since the UK budget cuts announcement?
Ms De Winter: In terms of responses from the public, over 15,000 people have signed on the I Value the Arts website to show their support for the arts.

Q: How have the budget cuts affected people in terms of job losses?
DW: It’s too early to tell how this impacts on jobs. Not all funding decisions have been announced and local governments (who also fund the arts) are waiting to hear what their settlements will be. However, we do know that Somerset County Council has recently voted for a 100 per cent cut of its arts development budget (£159,000). This is bound to have an effect on those organisations involved.

Q: What is your organisation’s stand on the budget cuts issue?
DW: The National Campaign for the Arts worked vigorously with the sector to make the case for public investment in the arts. We always understood (as indeed did the arts sector as a whole) that the sector could not be immune from the cuts and lobbied hard to make sure that the cuts were not too fast or too deep. The Chancellor announcing a 15 per cent cut to ‘frontline arts organisations’ appeared to have heard those arguments by limiting the extent of cuts to organisations. However, the cut to Arts Council England of 30 per cent will still have a massive impact on ‘frontline arts’ and organisations, as many programmes, projects and organisations were also funded through ‘strategic funding’. For example, the Manchester International Festival is not a regularly funded organisation, but received funding directly from Arts Council’s strategic funds. Similarly, the 50 per cent admin cut that the Arts Council will have to make to its own costs, is also bound to impact on the arts sector as its capacity to respond to artists’ needs and inquiries will be more curtailed.
Add all of that up with the 28 per cent cuts to local government (which will probably also massively rebound on arts and culture budgets, as evidenced by what happened in Somerset) and one can see that the outlook for the arts is very bleak.

Q: Do you feel the government could have handled the cuts differently?
DW: I think the DCMS could have thought more clearly first about what type of organization and funding body it wanted the Arts Council to be, before making such massive cuts to its budget. Given that the Government expects the Arts Council to probably pick up some of the functions from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and the UK Film Council (both NDPBs announced for abolition) it doesn’t appear to have thought through how it might do that with reduced staff and reduced funding.

Q: How have you been able to help so far?
DW: The NCA has responded to events by informing politicians and the press and media about the impact on arts organisations and on local communities. Through campaigns such as I Value the Arts we have been able to alert signatories to potential changes in arts provision taking place on their patch and asking them to attend council meetings or write to their local councillors to outline how they feel about the arts in their area and to articulate their support for the arts. The NCA has also written to local councillors, local MPs and to the Ministers also to bring our concerns to their attention, but ultimately this is an issue where it is important for local citizens and local voters to get engaged.

Q: Are there any events, gatherings or meetings you are organising that you would like to encourage arts lovers to go to?
DW: We will be holding an event on 13 December (more details to be available soon) about the arts and the Big Society, involving Nat Wei, one of the architects of the Big Society, who will outline how he sees this working in relation to artists and arts organisations.
Generally, we would encourage arts lovers to consume as much of the arts locally to them as possible – the old adage of ‘if you don’t use it you’ll lose it’ rings very true now. Be as supportive as possible of local arts events and organisations and where possible, also offer to help and volunteer.

Q: Is your organisation struggling for funding as well?
DW: Yes. The NCA does not receive any Government or public funding to carry out its remit. We are the independent voice of the arts in the UK. Our funding comes from our membership and what we can fundraise. Even though our work is needed now more than ever, we still struggle for funding.

For more information about the NCA please visit www.artscampaign.org.uk

Interview with Anthony Alderson

The cuts could provide an opportunity for reform

This week A&C spoke to Anthony Alderson, director at Islington’s Pleasance Theatre on North Road. The Pleasance is one of the few entirely self-sufficient large theatres still to be found in London, so it’s no surprise that its director has some strong views about government funding, its impact on those who accept it, and where it could be redirected.

Choosing to avoid Arts Council England (ACE) funding was a founding principle of the theatre, for which Alderson cites two reasons. The first and more pragmatic is that subsidies can suddenly be withdrawn for reasons outside the recipient’s control, as we are currently seeing.

The second reason is a more fundamental one. The theatre wanted to ensure that it retained “freedom to programme and to do what we want, rather than being curated or channelled by ACE policy.”

While the theatre itself doesn’t receive ACE funding, there are plenty of theatre companies who perform there which have Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) status. To Alderson, this inevitably means giving up some freedom to the “young producers [at ACE] essentially curating what the arts in this country are, and I don’t think that’s the right way to fund things.”

Surrendering a degree of creative control is bad enough for companies struggling to produce impactful work on a shoestring budget. Unfortunately, this is not the only indignity suffered by the RFOs.

“I object to having to spend money on administration simply to track money and justify what you’re doing,” says Alderson. He describes the drip-feed of funding diverted into keeping track of itself as simply “bonkers”.

For him, there are far more efficient ways ACE and local government could help local theatre to flourish, and some of them needn’t cost a penny. The most critical factor in the success of any production is public awareness – and this is exactly where local authorities can help.

“What if we allowed artistic communities free space to advertise – for example on lampposts? This would bring greater exposure and it would pay for itself in ticket sales and less money spent on fly-posting and flyering.”

This kind of assistance to the arts isn’t just about packing in audiences and boosting sales revenue for theatres and companies, however. For Alderson, increasing the visibility of the theatre ought to be central to the government’s strategy for rebooting communities and instilling a new spirit of localism in Britain.

“The centre of the Big Society is the arts. Theatre brings communities together on all levels. We ought to be spending money on getting people in who wouldn’t ordinarily go into the theatre.”

Theatres, in Alderson’s view, provide a nexus for communities, functioning as a meeting place, a “pressure valve… the expression of our democracy,” and a stimulus to local businesses. He believes that tens of millions of pounds are spent in local pubs, restaurants, and other enterprises as part of the halo effect of theatrical productions.

“The return is far greater than the investment,” says Alderson. This may have been the argument deployed by every sector as they sought to hold off the Chancellor’s axe, but theatre has a case study; the Edinburgh Festival.

“The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which exists for 3 1/2 weeks of the year, puts between £85 and £100 million into the local economy,” he says. This is an exaggeration, but not by much; a study by Edinburgh Council in 2004-5(.pdf, summary on page 40) found that the Fringe generates up to £75m a year. Another study, launched earlier this year, will report on how much this has grown.

Ultimately, Alderson believes, it is the Fringe which points the way for the future of British theatre. “There is no culture for exchange or entrepreneurialism in some of the funded organisations…that’s where the money should be going.”

This is a far cry from the public lamentations of a prevision generation of thespians over the demise of the government funded repertory theatre (to which Alderson responded on The Guardian’s Comment is Free). And the Fringe can provide an equally rewarding career path for young actors as the rep once did; “There is a fantastic structure there for young people – plenty are happy working in the Fringe, not just the West End, and people make careers out of it.”

Alderson keeps coming back to the same refrain: the best place to spend money on supporting the theatre is on increasing its visibility. “There’s a balance to be struck between money spent on art and money spent on marketing,” he says. “Without marketing, you might as well not do the art.”

Whether that be allowing theatres and companies to advertise on council property for free, setting up local message boards for theatre companies to post programmes, or a central online box office selling tickets for every Fringe show in London, Alderson believes that artists need to be given the tools to get on with the job.

“It needn’t cost a lot of money and could be self-funding, but it needs capital to get it off the ground.”

For a government that hopes to save money by having ordinary people organise their local communities, the message couldn’t be any clearer.