I've been referencing Federico Fellini a lot recently who said that "The visionary is the only realist." When I was asked to write a short article for the relaunched SCOPE NI magazine online, the whole "art doesn't live in the real world" kept rattling around in my head so here it is.
At the suggestion of a friend (thanks Cian), I'm posting something I wrote in August on Facebook in response to the ACNI in-year cuts. Since then, the exhausted and reeling sector has been trying to marshall itself to mount another campaign. Much of what I wrote just a couple of months ago still rings true but since then the projection of cuts next year has risen to anywhere between 10 - 20%; the Events Fund has been cancelled without notice; and many grants across education, social, voluntary and community sectors have disappeared without trace.
For those of you that exist in a world where there are large arts organisations, most of the organisations called into a meeting by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in August 2014 operate with less than 6 core staff, many with just 1 or 2 fulltime staff, some with none. We are the "lucky" ones whose core funding comes from the core DCAL grant. A 5% cut halfway through a financial year and projected 5 - 7% cut next year is devastating when our funding is at the same level it was at in around 2006 which even then was laughably insufficient. In 2006 the Lottery funds available at least could help out with programme costs or, in our case, pay for one of our fulltime staff (that job doesn't exist any more by the way). This is not (uniquely) an arts-only cut. The entire public sector budget has been hacked at because of a political stalemate between our two lead parties, coupled with a laughably horrific fiscal policy with no sound economic rationale by a UK Coalition government populated almost entirely by a distant wealthy ruling class. I object to our public budgets being used as political weaponry between parties. I absolutely do not support any of our political parties but I do support the desire to find an alternative solution than the punitive and inhuman welfare reform bill. These cuts and financial penalties are avoidable. For those of you who do not know NI, our Assembly is governed by four different parties in coalition, resulting in absolutely NO joined up thinking across departments (fellow NI residents please correct me if this is an inaccurate representation but I don't believe so). However, I also am mostly disturbed by just how fragile the arts in NI now is. One day after the announcement of a £14million investment into a new film sound stage and facilities, PaintHall Studios, an investment triggered by the presence of a skilled creative workforce in Northern Ireland, a proposed cut of less than 10% will put most arts organisations to the wall within eighteen months. So how did that happen? How did a vibrant skilled sector with so much to offer end up unable to shoulder a "small cut" in these times of austerity? Before the ceasefires, we were told there were bigger more important arguments than the funding of the arts and we had to wait our turn. After the Good Friday agreement, we were told that peacebuilding and regeneration were key and the arts would have to wait our turn. At the Millennium we asked for the wild spending to be reviewed so that we could sustain our artistic infrastructure. We talked about the Lottery-mad capital buildings across NI and asked who would fill them. We were told that this would be addressed under RPA (the Review of Public Administration) and we would have to wait our turn. When the Lottery money was ringfenced for Good Causes and the Olympics and our programmes began to drop we asked for the core funding to be reviewed. We were told that timing was sensitive and there was political stalemate and we had to wait our turn. When the economy crashed in 2008, we were told that we had got ourselves into this position and we should be doing more to be sustainable, that we were no good at generating income and we didn't do enough to be accessible to communities. In 1997, NI public spend on the arts was £6.60. A calculation of the ACNI budget of £12.3million in 2014 - 15 (yes, that's the figure before a 5% cut) says that the spend on a population of 1.81million people is now a spectacular £6.80 and falling. 20p in 17 years - that's what the arts have been worth for NI! In 1997, a litre of unleaded cost 64p. Yesterday at my local garage it was £1.31. So who is the realist - the arts or the government? Nobel prizes, films, west end hits, a thriving cultural tourism industry, a network of venues, a city of culture, a festivals circuit, multiple vocational courses, a film and TV industry dependent on our artists, compulsory arts in the curriculum with no core arts in education funding, and the fact that many of us are actually still here and doing despite eyewatering low salaries and the highest cost of living in the UK. All of that is supposed to cost an extra 20p per person. Oops sorry, that's just dropped but where it drops to we can't tell yet. In August I asked when it would be our turn but I'm tired of waiting for it to be the right time. Our politicians are busy sorting out what they consider the important things but we as workers, parents, taxpayers, citizens, the arts sector can no longer wait. If you want your photocalls, tributes, concerts, civic projects, public hand-shaking, your tourism advertising and star turns; if you believe the creative industries and film will save our economic shirts; if you want the communities you value, the children you love and the vulnerable people you care to have imagination, hope and happiness; if you want an education system fit for the 21st century; if you want an alternative social and cultural dialogue to the one you keep pursuing and clearly isn't working, then step in now. The arts won't wait. It can't wait any more. |