Andrew Lloyd Webber Calls on Theatre Makers to Protect the Arts in Acceptance Speech

In an acceptance speech for outstanding achievement at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards this week, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber stressed the need for arts funding and the urgency of protecting the arts during these uncertain political times.

He urges: "The arts have never been more important, particularly in this country, I think all of us who have had the opportunity and the luck of having had success in the arts, and I have made a great living out of the one thing I'm passionate about, must consider that we must put something back ourselves. So if you think you can found a scholarship or do anything to help young people do anything to keep arts on the map and keep arts in schools, it's really vital, please do so."

Speaking to reporters backstage, he added: "No matter what your political persuasion is I think if you face the stark fact, if our national debt interest is greater than the entire cost of the NHS and we all want to pay more for our doctors and our nurses, but we have that millstone hanging over us, I can't see that anything substantial can be done for the arts.

The South Bank Sky Arts Awards ceremony will be broadcast on Sky Arts on Wednesday at 8pm.

Additional winners included:

Classical Music: Philharmonia Orchestra, Stravinsky: Myths and Rituals
Comedy: Fleabag (BBC3)
Dance: English National Ballet, Akram Khan's Giselle
Film: I, Daniel Blake
Literature: The Gustav Sonata, Rose Tremain
Opera: Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle), Opera North
Pop Music: David Bowie, Blackstar
Theatre: Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Palace Theatre
TV Drama: Happy Valley (BBC1)
Visual Art: Artangel, Inside: Artists And Writers In Reading Prison
Times Breakthrough: Classical Music - Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Outstanding Achievement: Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber