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(UK) Arts Council review of Opera and Ballet, looking at "new models"


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Maria Miller MP made a speech about the Arts needing to make an economic case last week at the British Museum. 

 

I couldn't find a link to the speech but the BBC and Guardian, amongst others, commented on its content and there have been some responses from the Arts World.  Here are some links:

 

Reportage on the speech:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22267625

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/24/british-culture-commodity-maria-miller

 

Some responses to the speech:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/10015356/Sir-Nicholas-Hytner-Arts-are-economic-gold-for-Britain.html

 

http://artsfunding.ning.com/profiles/blogs/this-at-last-is-naked-the-conservatives-see-culture-as-commodity

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Arts strike back!

 

 

"We're worth four times what you pay for us, arts leaders tell Government"

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/were-worth-four-times-what-you-pay-for-us-arts-leaders-tell-government-8605327.html

 

 

"The arts, says Rupert Christiansen, are as essential to our national dignity as the Queen or the Lake District – and that is why they must be properly funded."

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10039930/Arts-Council-report-nice-idea-but-lets-raise-the-argument.html

Edited by Janet McNulty
Edited to add second link
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I've always been of the belief that the arts should fund themselves, but I did wonder watching Mayerling the other day whether a ballet as complicated as that would be created and performed if there wasn't the safety net of funding (and whether i'd be able to get a good seat for £13).

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Hi chrischris,

I don't think anyone thinks art should be subsidised as a matter of principle, it just is the economic reality that anything involving an orchestra cannot survive with tickets sales alone.

The LSO on their programme when having an advert asking for donations points out that even a sold out hall only covers about 50% of the costs involved in putting on a concert, I imagine the numbers are fairly comparable for ballet and opera, and bearing in mind that Covent Garden has a better occupancy rate than any concert hall, even the Coliseum is most night positively packed compared to most concerts by one of the London big three.

And as you point out, the subsidy mostly allows to have cheap tickets available and to make sure that a company making the necessary investments  to have a new full-length evening doesn't end up bankrupt. I vaguely remember seeing massive figures being circulated about Wheeldon's Alice, the show proved popular enough that it's probably been will be worth it, but any private company probably would have thought about it more than twice before going ahead.

It is possible to bemoan that ballet (for it is what concerns us here) cannot fund itself without the state, and it is of course possible to think of alternate ways to finance it, but none seem a lot more realistic these days, at least not in the short term, and not if we want to keep the same quality and variety of works.

In the end, whether or not the state spends money on the arts depends on the society they want (I'm reminded of an old Dilbert comic, where one character was in a meeting with Human Resources and was screaming: "I am not a *** resource").

It's probably the first time I agree with Rupert Christiansen on something, but the comments on the article are quite dispiriting.

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It's probably the first time I agree with Rupert Christiansen on something, but the comments on the article are quite dispiriting.

 

Ignore the comments, Telegraph readers react in much the same way to just about everything.

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  • 1 month later...

Interesting article in the Guardian following on from yesterday's Government Spending Review:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/jun/26/arts-cuts-osborne-spending-northern-ballet?CMP=twt_gu

 

"It's unusual to welcome a cut but Mark Skipper echoed the emotions of arts leaders and museum bosses across the UK when he heard George Osborne's cuts would amount to no more than 5%. "It is a relief. It is a good outcome."

 

Not in this article but I read yesterday that the Arts funding is 0.1% of the GDP but income from the Arts generates 0.4% of the GDP!  Simplistic of me but how does jeopardising the Arts by cutting funding equate to that statistic?

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I agree that touring companies should advertise more. ENB has good cheap tickets that I found out just by chance. My dd ballet school doesn't have any flyers ever. A family at the school asked me how does one book tickets to RB.!!!!!!!!!It can be daunting to go to the ballet for the first time but there are lots of people who are interested.

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Some sober reading from Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph for fans of ENB and NB...

Where should the Arts Council make its cuts?
Rupert Christiansen applauds the resilience of the arts in the face of financial adversity and offers some suggestions as to how best to cope with the latest five per cent cut to the budget.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10153551/Where-should-the-Arts-Council-make-its-cuts.html

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I read this article with interest.  I think the paragraph about ENO / ENB and white elephants is woolly. 

 

"Is there room for at least partial administrative mergers with Opera North and Northern Ballet, or would that create more problems than it solves? Otherwise both organizations may be asked to consider a downsizing which might involve handing their White Elephant of a London home at the Coliseum over to a commercial producer."

 

As far as I am aware, the Coli belongs to ENO and ENB is a visiting company like any other.

 

There is always merit in looking at administrative functions to see how they can be improved and mergers of common functionality may make some sense.  Perhaps though any such administrative merger should be done by geographical area rather than art-type.

 

However, any widescale "downsizing" would have to take into account the number of people being thrown out of work in an already depressed work situation - althouth the organisations may make the savings in part these would be offset by the rise in the number of jobless. 

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Thanks for this interesting piece, Bruce.  It is telling to note, however, that many of the changes that the author is proposing are having to be made RIGHT NOW with the very real impact of the previous funding cuts to both of the noted organisations.  We will see the very real outcome of those shortly.  The ENB of the year after next will HAVE to be very different if it is to BE at all.  The further 5% cut as noted will come in 2015 and there are - as already promised - further cuts for the following two years which are yet to be registered as those spending reviews have yet to be contemplated.  

 

Much like the new Governor of the Bank of the England (and let's pray he tries to truly remain more independent from the government's pull than his predecessor) artistic leaders may well have to administer radical reform to have ANY impact at all,  They will not be allowed to stand still.  The new Governor may well have to announce an interest rate rise within a certain specific juncture - say every six months - if he is to FORCE people to go out and buy/borrow in the now.  He can't just go on printing money to add on to our (great)grandchildren's debt.  So too might the managements of these artistic companies have to seek what in other times would be thought to be far too risky swims - (or is it now they will simply have to be more open in such pursuits?).  

 

Ironically the ENO - which had been long dribbling along in the fat of previous affection - has of late - with, say, the stunning productions of Wozzeck, Death and Venice and The Perfect American - been fulfilling the mandate they had all too long ignored; one wholly deserving of their subsidy received.  I pray they can be salvaged to fulfill an on-going renewed focus.  I, for one, will understand if that is not possible.  As in everything, it is a case of agendas.  As it is all of their productions are co-productions with three or four different organisations.  I have a feeling that number of participants may well have to grow if these are to survive.

 

Of course it may - much as sadly was the case with the core of the once noted NYC Opera - not be sufficient for survival.  I pray that the Coliseum itself is somehow protected.  It was built at the end of the heyday when theatre itself was mass media.  When NYCO left the NY State (now David Koch) Theatre, it left it as a dance palace (e.g., 'the house that Balanchine built' as it it's sweetly known by locals).  ABT now has a contract for the next five years there for its Fall season.  Who would have previously thought?  Not me, and I daresay not Kevin McKenzie.

 

NOW there is a chance - albeit slim - for Tamara to storm the Coliseum with the ENB.  If anyone can do it - I think she can.  This is her chance to be a 21st century de Valois.   ENB will no doubt have to be reformed - indeed it MUST.  SURELY THAT IS ON THE CARDS NOW - NOT IN TWO YEARS TIME - AND OF COURSE THERE WILL/(MUST) BE CURRENT PAIN IF THERE IS TO BE THE POSSIBILITY FOR FUTURE GAIN.  It MUST, of course, be different from the Royal Ballet - but then that too I think can be a good thing.  Much as was the case with Serena Williams yesterday - it won't come without a goodLY number of fights.  Press on Madam Rojo.  That's what some might call 'teaching'  - although perhaps not by one Mr. Gove.  ('Where is your certificate, dear?' might be echoed.)  As the screws tighten EVER further ... and they will .... perhaps EVEN more radical approaches will be required.  

 

What if there was a ACE programme to help subsidize TV programmes like the reality documentary series that was done on ENB by Sky Arts.  If you can't beat the reality commercial band then why not join them on your own terms; in a way that would at least be within touching distance of the relevant artform.  This would - well, MIGHT - help to inform the public and would (hopefully) bring into focus the young artists (British born and otherwise - although the immigration policies are helping to refine this) who are at its core (the older ones having been more expensive and easily expendable ... as ever in life's own cruel toll ... Nothing new there.)  

 

Of one thing I'm certain THIS 'austerity' period - once the shock of the memory of what was can fade - (and there will be casualties on THAT wayside as well) - will bring with it renewed vigor.  As in any surviving garden you have to cut back to grow anew .... otherwise it is merely the weeds that ultimately remain.  

 

I agree with the comments made about the funding of the community sector.  Too much of THAT was all too patronising ... and went on for far too long. [This I saw first hand for myself]  It oft provided but a chance for ACE to applaud/celebrate themselves on a basis rooted far from the quality (or lack of) the artwork being produced/delivered.)  

 

Of course we may not like the new off-shoots in the short term.  As ever, we will have to learn to live with them ... or move elsewhere.  (Is this not STILL a free country?)  The choice of the seeds is for our leaders.  They have to live/die by their choices.  They must be free to make them.  Of course, we vote in their ultimate terms with our subsidy.  The problem is oft having leaders who can sit nowhere but on the proverbial fence.  David Nixon cannot be blamed for that.  He is dealing with the realty as creatively as he can.  

 

Not everyone may love McGregor but it was clear from the Kevin O'Hare's recent LBC chat that this is where his key commitment for the RB's current future is to be.  I applaud that.  McGregor (regardless of what you think of him) has shown himself clearly developing a voice at the RB FOR THE RB and has begun to shape the company in his mold.  I think now we know what we mean by a McGregor dancers.  Also he has kept to a balletic idiom.  That has now begun to reflect in ALL of the work that the company does.  

 

Much as people may have thought of the RB historically as an 'Ashton' Company, then a 'McMillan' company - now the RB is - at least from my perspective - and I mean this as a compliment of recognition/achievement - a 'McGregor' Company.  The other two key current RB associates seem to be sharing their gifts a little too generously to commit to this hold.  Commitment surely is ALL.  Once either party deflects the potential (and danger) of that bloom is gone.  

 

If a company today is to have a shape - and currently they MUST if they are to swim - then they must have a recognisable voice within which all else can be recognised.  Ratmansky - after such a long time - is bringing this to ABT.  (He could not have come sooner - and his commitment there is to 2020.)  (It is here that of late the Bolshoi has struggled.  If there was an internal vision would they have the extremity of the problems they now possess?  I don't know .. but I think it might not.   .... Gergiev is very clear in wanting to bring the Mariinsky 'back to Russia' and he now has the tool to do it with.  The roaming days are over, he says.  He has got the money and he's heading home.)  

 

I applaud Mr. O'Hare for holding the courage of his conviction's choice.  That bravery in and of itself deserves applause.  That is, of course, his job.  (Sadly few have the guts to do it.)  Being the poster boy for its success he will have to stand to face its failure.  In all stand he must.  He will I'm sure because he seems more than refreshingly content with that responsibility.  Bravo.  

 

If there is going to be something for anyone to revive in the future that is the only way to go; to give a snapshot of our time through the balletic arts.

Edited by Meunier
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While there is, of course, a debate to be had, it must surely start from a point of deciding on the elements of dance which are needed/desirable across the country and only then develop the organisational model for grant support.

 

This is the second article by Rupert Christiansen which advocates protecting both the Royal Ballet (which he has admitted elsewhere is his 'home team') and the Birmingham Royal and proposes changes for ENB and NB without a fully thought through basis for his argument.

 

If change has to come at the hands of the Arts Council - and we should not forget the other sources of funding which (fortunately) render the whole scene more complex - it has to be via a properly researched, collaborative and phased process.

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How does the UK compare to other countries in terms of the number of ballet companies (and dancers) per head of population. I do agree with Rupert Christiansen that (on the face of it) the UK has a lot of orchestras (which I'm not saying is a bad thing).

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Just a couple of words about the second paragraph in post 44; Mervyn King, (a very nice man - I've met him) partially introduced QE to prevent the pound becoming too strong against the floundering Euro, otherwise UK exports would have become unaffordable.  Interest rates will have to rise eventually, but that will create a lot of problems for people with mortgages.

 

 

 

Only 15% of necessary cuts have been made so far, therefore after the election in 2015 there will be a lot more pain with either more cuts in all departments or a significant hike in income tax.  As personal tax stands at an all time low, I tend to favour the latter option.

 

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