Cuts ahoy!
June 10 2013
Picture: Evening Standard
It's interesting to see the briefing going on here in the UK press about cuts to the arts. Details of the Government's spending review are due to be announced in late June, and departments are now engaged in last minute negotiations with the Treasury. On Saturday, the FT reported that Culture Secretary Maria Miller (of whom AHN recently disapproved) is 'resisting' cuts to her department's £1.2bn budget, a briefing which comes hot on the heels of suggestions that she might be sacked and her department axed altogether. On Sunday, the Sunday Times quoted a 'Whitehall Source' as saying that the Opera-loving George Osborne was in favour of shielding the arts from hefty cuts, but that his 'Philistine' deputy, Liberal Democrat Tresury Secretary Danny Alexander, was insisting that the arts take a hit. This last story is most curious, as Osborne is Chancellor after all, and has the final word. Either way, it all points to the fact that the arts world is being softened up for a significant cut, and that axe-wielding Tories are looking for someone to blame.
It's curious to note that there has been relative silence about cuts from the art world, aside from a recent plea by Sir Nicholas Serota. Are the grand fromages of the arts resigned to the inevitable, or are they concerned that, in these austere times, public pleas for special treatment might only damage their case?
