Boosting Arts Spending Outside London is a 'Textbook Example of Levelling Down' says Director Nicholas Hytner

Director Nicholas Hytner has laid out a funding plan for the next government to save the arts in the UK. He suggested that a model similar to Sports England should be used for the arts.

Writing in The Guardian, the artistic director of the Bridge Theatre said "The optimism and financial security that made the first years of my stint at the National so fruitful now seem like a distant memory. Today, I don't know a single subsidised arts organisation in the country that feels financially secure. Many freelance artists have given up, battered by the pandemic and the disastrous removal of their right to work freely in the EU."

In its latest strategy document, the Arts Council issued plans for England to be a country "in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish. A country where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences."

Hytner wrote: "My proposal, then, for a Labour government, is to fund, in addition to the Arts Council, a new body as expert in its field as Sport England. In doing so, recognise the importance of participation in the arts with its own funding stream, to which new community-based initiatives as well as established education and outreach programmes can apply. And re-establish the arts in schools."

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Hytner re-emphasied that the arts have been stripped from schools and that the "universal creativity-the creativity of each of us" that the Arts Council refers to, needs a change in its funding model.

His suggestion is that "the next government finds a new pot of money for what you might call universal creativity and devote the Arts Council grant for great art for a great amount of people."

He said that during the pandemic "the present government was unexpectedly generous..audiences are back, but we can't charge them what we need to return to financial health. My theatre, which is a totally commecial theatre, we can as its up to us, the subsidised arts organisations simply can't. I'm suggesting that there is a new funding stream that would be available."

Hytner said that Arts Council England funding total is £458.5million; 0.05% of total government spending.

The BBC Radio 4 interview is available here at 02.47.00

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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