The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller said this morning: "Culture is central to efforts to get the economy going but the arts should expect no special treatment from the Treasury". In a speech to arts leaders gathered at the British Museum she said she was fighting their corner “as hard as I can”, as the Government decides where it will make further cuts to public spending. But the arts sector would have to “reframe the argument” and “hammer home the value of culture to our economy ... Culture does not simply have a role to play in bringing about a return to growth. Rather, it should be central to these efforts. The arts are not an add-on. They are fundamental to our success as a nation”.
The Treasury would not treat funding for the arts as a special case, she warned, even though creative industries are worth £36 billion to the economy. In the last round of spending cuts the Arts Council suffered a 30 per cent budget cut. Arts leaders fear a drive for further savings in the forthcoming spending review could destroy the sector’s capacity to deliver. Mrs Miller said culture should be seen as “a standard bearer” for diplomacy. “British culture and creativity are now more in demand than ever before,” she added.
However the Shadow Culture Secretary, Harriet Harman, responded Maria Miller's speech this morning by saying: "If Maria Miller is going to try to convert her Chancellor and Treasury colleagues to the economic value of the arts and creative industries to jobs and growth, she will have our strong backing. Arts are suffering under this government's cuts at local as well as central government level and the government must think again. But she needs to persuade her Education Secretary as well, that for the sake of all children and the future of arts and creativity in this country, arts must be at the heart of the curriculum. And she needs to promote the fact that arts and creativity is about much more than the economy: they’re about a sense of identity, of community and the potential of each and every individual."
