Cracks open inside Arts Council England

Scanning the list of council members who signed chairman Nicholas Serota’s defence letter yesterday, two notable omissions were spotted.

Neither Baroness Fleet nor Abiogail Pogson agreed to sign on.

The Baroness is stepping down at the end of her term next month. But Pogson is Managing Director of Sage Gateshead and a serious player in arts politics. If she won’t back Let’s Create, the policy is clearly sinking.

Five years in, Let’s Create has turned into an enforcement activity by bureaucrats who have no feeling for the arts and no creative spark. It needs to be scrapped, along wioth its authors.

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For those with nothing better to read, here’s the full list of signatories below. Anyone else missing?

Ajay Chhabra, South West Area Council member, CEO & Co Artistic Director, Nutkhut, Aldershot
Andrew Lovett OBE, National Council member, Chief Executive, Black Country Living Museum, Dudley
Andrew Miller MBE, National Council member, UK Arts Access Champion, All In, Northamptonshire
Annabel Turpin, National Council member and North Area Chair, Chief Executive, Storyhouse & Co-Director, Future Arts Centres, Chester
Anne Mullins, London Area Council member, Cultural leader, London
Britannia Morton, London Area Council member, Executive Director and Co-Chief Executive, Sadler’s Wells, London
Carlos Pons Guerra, North Area Council member, Choreographer, Leeds
Cherylee Houston MBE, North Area Council member, Co-founder, TripleC, Manchester
Ciaron Wilkinson, North Area Council member, Head of External Relations, Manchester Museum
David Bryan CBE, National Council member and London Area Council Chair, Founder and Director, Xtend UK Ltd, London
Deborah Shaw, National Council member, Chief Executive, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury
Edenamiuki Aiguobasinmwin, North Area Council member, Creative Director, Elevate Young Minds Clc, Manchester
Emily Bowman, Midlands Area Council member, Managing Director, Junction Arts, North Derbyshire
Gurvinder Sandher MBE, South East Area Council member, Artistic Director, Cohesion Plus Kent, Gravesham
Cllr Harry Doyle, North Area Council member, Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing & Culture, Liverpool City Council
Helen Birchenough, National Council member and South West Area Council Chair, Deputy Lieutenant Wiltshire, Salisbury
Hilary Carty OBE, South East Area Council member, Executive Director, Clore Leadership, Luton
Jaivant Patel, Midlands Area Council member, Artistic Director, Jaivant Patel Company, Wolverhampton
Javaad Alipoor, North Area Council member, Artist, writer and director, Manchester
Cllr Jayne Francis, Midlands Area Council member, Cabinet Member for Digital Heritage Culture and Tourism, Birmingham City Council
Cllr Jemima Laing, South West Area Council member, Deputy Leader, Plymouth City Council
Cllr Jenny Williams BEM, South East Area Council member, Cabinet Member, Culture, Heritage and Seafront, Eastbourne Borough Council
Cllr John Beesley, South West Area Council member, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council
Julie Caplin Grey, South West Area Council member, Deputy Chief Executive, Hall for Cornwall, Truro
Julie Finch, Midlands Area Council member, CEO, Hay Festival Foundation, Hay-On-Wye
Julie Gilhespie, North Area Council member
Lloyd Coleman, South West Area Council member, Associate Music Director, Paraorchestra, Bristol
Louise Blackwell, South East Area Council member, Creative Director, Creative Crawley
Louise Mitchell CBE, South West Area Council member, former Chief Executive, Bristol Music Trust
Lucy Kennedy, London Area Council member, Chief Executive, National Saturday Club, London
Cllr Marina Strinkovsky, South West Area Council member, Cabinet Member for Placemaking and Planning, Swindon Borough Council, Swindon
Cllr Mark Durham, South East Area Council member, Cabinet Member for The Arts, Heritage & Culture, Essex County Council
Mark Wallace, South West Area Council member, Director, Beaford Arts, North Devon
Matt Steinberg, London Area Council member, Artistic Director and CEO, Outside Edge Theatre Company, London
Cllr Matt Taylor, Midlands Area Council member, High Peak Borough Council, Buxton
Natalie Adams, South West Area Council member, Executive Director & Joint CEO, Trigger, North Somerset
Pamela Roberts, South East Area Council member, Creative Producer
Parminder Dosanjh, Midlands Area Council member, Creative Director, Creative Black Country
Patrick Chapman MBE, North Area Council member, Chair, Northern Print, Northumberland
Paul Stacey, South East Area Council member, Artistic Director, Reading Rep Theatre, Berkshire
Pawlet Brookes MBE, Midlands Area Council member, CEO and Artistic Director, Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, Leicester
Phil Stokes, National Council member, Chair of Performance and Audit Committee and Chair of Remuneration Committee, London
Professor Bambo Soyinka, South West Area Council member, CEO, Paper Nations, Bath
Riley Mathers, South West Area Council member, freelance artist, Artsite, Swindon
Saad Eddine Said, Midlands Area Council member, Chief Executive and Artistic Director, New Art Exchange, Nottingham
Sally Shaw MBE, National Council member and South East Area Chair, Director, Firstsite, Colchester
Cllr Sam Martin, London Area Council member, Deputy Leader, Sutton Council, London
Sarah Barrow, South East Area Council member, Professor of Film and Media, University of East Anglia
Sean Lawless, North Area Council member, Darlington
Shahina Johnson MBE, South West Area Council member, CEO & Artistic Director, Create Studios, Swindon
Shawab Iqbal, London Area Council member, Executive Director and Joint CEO, Leeds Playhouse
Sho Shibata, South East Area Council member, Director, OutdoorArtsUK
Cllr Simon Myers, North Area Council member, Executive Member for Culture, the Arts, Leisure and Housing, North Yorkshire Council
Sook-Kyung Lee, North Area Council member, Director, The Whitworth, Manchester
Steve Miller MBE, South East Area Council member, Director of Culture & Heritage, Norfolk County Council
Cllr Steve Pitt, South West Area Council member, Portsmouth City Council
Sukhy Johal MBE, National Council member and Midlands Area Chair, Director, Centre for Culture and Creativity, University of Lincoln
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, North Area Council member, Leader, Bradford Metropolitan District Council
Tom Ryalls, London Area Council member, freelance playwright and strategist, London
Victoria Dela Amedume MBE, London Area Council member, Creative Director and Joint CEO, The Albany, Deptford, Artistic Director and CEO, Upswing, London
Cllr Victoria Harvey, South East Area Council member, Central Bedfordshire Council
Vijay Patel, South East Area Council member, Associate Director, Colchester Arts Centre
Cllr Vince Maple, South East Area Council member, Leader, Medway Council
William Bush CBE, National Council member, former Executive Director, Premier League, London
YolanDa Brown OBE DL, National Council member, Saxophonist, Broadcaster, Author