How short is an arm in the arts?
NewsRichard Bratby, in a poignant analysis in The Critic of the slow suicide of Arts Council England, concludes with this important point: The arm’s-length principle is one aspect of the Arts Council that needs to be inviolable.
He blames its shortening chiefly on the last 14 years of Conservative-led government.
My perspective is a little longer. Chris Smith, Tony Blair’s first Culture Secretary, made it clear to the Arts Council that it was expected to promote social equality at least as much as artistic excellence.
Any pretence of independence vanished in 1997. Smith went on to head the Clore Leadership Programme, breeding a new generation of arts executivves who prioritised egalitarian and feelgood policies.
The next shortening came in 2008 when Labour’s Culture Secretary James Purnell (pictured) sent a senior official, Alan Davey, to be chief executive of the Arts Council, thereby turning the Council into a tawdry episode of Yes Minister. The length of an arm was cut to a fingernail.
The final, fatal chop came when Boris Johnson’s Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, issued a direct order to the ACE to move certain companies out of London.
That marked the death of the arm’s length principle, probably behyond hope olf resurrection. What the new Culture Secretary needs to consider is a different role for the armless ACE, if not its total abolition.
UPDATE: Tenor Ian Bostridge on the subject: Institutionally, one can point to the Arts Council which, under ministerial instruction, has been idly destroying the delicate ecosystem that has allowed British music to enrich so many lives at home and punch above its weight on the world stage.
I vote for total abolition.
Well said Norman. I urge you to write a journalistic history of the Arts Council. In the present climate – with a new government lacking institutional memory – this could be significantly helpful.