Arts Council England: We are not philistine (oh, yes you are)

The ACE chair Sir Nicholas Serota has put his name to an official rebuttal of an accusation this week by a senior judge that its conduct and policies are philistine.

Serota writes: ‘It is far from Philistine… to believe that change and reimagining are part of the capital’s story. Nor is it Philistine to believe the rest of the country deserves ambitious, substantial cultural investment too.

‘London has long received a greater proportion of cultural funding per head than anywhere else in England — £19 compared to £5 on average in our last round of national portfolio funding. Last year, guided by the Government’s Levelling Up policy, the Culture Secretary instructed the Arts Council to invest £24 million less a year in London and move that funding to other parts of the country. As a result, the Arts Council faced invidious choices and some good organisations in London lost funding…

‘Opera is one of the art forms that receives the most Arts Council investment (more than £40 million this year). We will always be committed to supporting world-class work in London and across the country, though the way we do this may change over time.’

What Serota fails to grasp that it is not just the cuts but the heartless and thoughtless ways they were imposed that has led the ACE to be branded rightly as Philistine.

The attitude of many ACE officials is all wrong.