Memorandum submitted by the Arts Council
England (V15)
Arts Council England welcomes the Government
White Paper on rural strategy with its ambition to develop a more
holistic approach to rural delivery that recognises the importance
of social as well as economic regeneration.
As the national arts development agency for
England, Arts Council England believes that the arts have power
to transform lives, communities and opportunities for people across
the country and is investing over £2 billion over three years
to achieve this. In each of its regional offices, Arts Council
England is working closely in partnership with its relevant Regional
Development Agency and Local Authorities, to ensure that the arts
add value to their delivery plans in both urban and rural areas.
We can offer many examples of imaginative, cost
effective schemes and projects where artists are actively engaged
in rural communities, tackling social exclusion and rural isolation,
working with young people to channel energy away from crime, building
capacity with older people to feel confident in the use of new
technology, and supporting farmers to diversify their income through
new uses for crops or disused farming buildings. Cultural Tourism
initiatives such as festivals, rural touring and open studio events
are generating money into rural areas. In a period of great change
the arts can be an effective way of undertaking creative consultation,
fostering debate and identifying key issues and concerns.
We believe the arts have both an intrinsic and
an enabling role to play in each of the key priorities in the
Rural Strategy. It was therefore with considerable disappointment
that we could find no reference in the White Paper to the important
role the arts could play in turning the strategy into reality.
Arts Council England is currently undergoing
a major review of all of its services, policies and programmes
in order to ensure that we are "rural proofed". A phased
programme of consultation and workshops is currently taking place
in every region with people and organisations living or working
in rural areas. We are also looking to our new European neighbours
to understand what we can learn from them about new ways of working
within rural areas. We want to be sure we are creating as effective
partnerships as possible so that we can support each other to
deliver more effectively into rural areas our mutual aims. Our
review is timed to be completed by March 2005 so that it can usefully
feed into the proposed changes outlined in the White Paper.
In the White Paper, the strengthened role of
RDAs recognises the continuity between urban and rural areas,
and supports integrated responses to their different situations.
Arts Council England's approach of adapting overall policy to
rural situations within a coherent framework for arts development,
is in line with this.
In submitting this evidence to the committee
we hope that, in taking the White Paper forward, there will be
more recognition of the role of the arts and that we will be seen
as a significant partner for the future.
17 September 2004
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