How Will Labour Use Its £270 Million Investment In British Culture?

It’s the 60th anniversary of the first ever arts white paper. Back then, Minister Jennie Lee had a vision of the ‘arts for everyone, everywhere’ (she was coincidentally also instrumental in the foundation of the Open University). The British government is observing the landmark anniversary with a huge funding package: more than £270 million is set to be invested in arts and culture nationwide thanks to the new Arts Everywhere Fund. Here’s exactly what that means.

What Is The Arts Everywhere Fund?

The government has revealed its new ‘Arts Everywhere Fund’, which is the next step in its Plan for Change, collated with the intention of boosting local economies and increasing skills opportunities in the creative sector. The arts and culture sector is worth around £124 billion in the British economy, and was identified by the government as a key growth-driving sector.

In brief, the Arts Everywhere Fund does what it says on the tin: it hopes to improve nationwide access to arts and culture, generating job opportunities across the UK (and protecting the 666,000 currently filled jobs), and continuing to spread the UK’s first-class creative media across the country rather than restricting it to London. Labour has also said the package will help to ‘boost people’s sense of pride in where they live’.

‘Arts and culture help us understand the world we live in,’ says Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. ‘They shape and define society and are enjoyed by people in every part of our country. They are the building blocks of our world-leading creative industries and make a huge contribution towards boosting growth and breaking down barriers to opportunities for young people to learn the creative skills they need to succeed.

‘The funding we are announcing today will allow the arts to continue to flourish across Britain, creating good jobs and growth by fixing the foundations in our cultural venues, museums, libraries and heritage institutions,’ Nandy says. ‘As a government that is on your side, our Plan for Change will ensure that arts and cultural institutions truly are for everyone, everywhere.’

Where Will The Money Go?

According to the announcement, the Arts Everywhere Fund will inject cash in the organisations who need it most: those struggling to stay open, those in need of vital infrastructure improvements, and those desperate for longer term financial resilience. In particular, this includes:

• £85 million Creative Foundations Fund to help keep venues across the country running
• A 5 percent increase in the budget for all national museums and galleries, supporting financial resilience and improving access to the national collections
• A £3.2 million fund for four cultural education programmes to preserve childhood access to the arts: the Museums and Schools Programme, the Heritage Schools Programme, the Art & Design National Saturday Club and the BFI Film Academy
• The return of the Museum Estate and Development Fund: £25 million to support museums with vital infrastructure projects and urgent maintenance backlogs; recent beneficiaries include Cornwall’s Wheal Martyn Clay Works, Buckinghamshire’s Bletchley Park, Nottinghamshire’s Creswell Crags, Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery, Sunderland’s Winter Gardens and 24 further institutions
• £120 million added to the Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund, which helps national cultural public institutions address essential works, like fixing broken roofs or installing accessibility measures
• £20 million Museum Renewal Fund keeping local museums open and protecting jobs, and continuing to tell valuable local stories
• £15 million Heritage at Risk fund to help repair and conserve local heritage buildings like shops, pubs, parks and town halls and those managed by Historic England
• £4.85 million Heritage Revival Fund to support local community organisations to look after their heritage buildings
• The return of the Libraries Improvement Fund: £5.5 million to upgrade library services across England

The Arts Everywhere package was laid out by Nandy at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon this morning. The £270 million fund comes on top of the recent £60 million commitment to supporting creative businesses and projects across the UK, recently revealed by Nandy at the Creative Industries Growth Summit. The ultimate goal is to keep arts and culture accessible to everyone on a national scale, keeping entry/ticket prices down and ensuring there is a good amount of high-quality institutions across each and every region. Arts Council England is also set to undergo a major review to ensure it is effectively supporting, developing and celebrating creativity across every corner of the country. Institutions will be invited to apply for funding in due course.

‘Our Plan for Change promises growth for every corner of the UK, which is why this week I announced more than £67 million for ten major cultural projects that celebrate our nation,’ says deputy PM Angela Rayner. ‘I had the pleasure to visit some of these projects last week and seeing the role they will play in igniting regeneration in their communities and on a national scale. This means more tourism, more growth and more money in people’s pockets.’

Institutions have praised the funding package across the board. Kate Varah, co-CEO of the National Theatre praised the government for ‘keenly [understanding] the arts ecosystem and its leading role in boosting the economy, enriching local communities and enhancing soft power’. The Royal Ballet and Opera’s CEO Alex Beard agrees, calling the Arts Everywhere Fund ‘a vital first step in ensuring that future generations of audience members can continue to enjoy our world leading performing arts sector’.

The news follows additional funding for the culture sector announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government earlier this week: £67 million is set to support projects in the north, including supporting York’s National Railway Museum, Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum, and Leeds’ National Poetry Centre. The package will also help revamp ‘Temple Works’, paving the way for the long-awaited British Library North.

Find out more at gov.uk