Memorandum submitted by Arts Council England
INTRODUCTION
1. Arts Council England works to get more
art to more people in more places. We develop and promote the
arts across England, acting as an independent body at arm's length
from government. Between 2006 and 2008, we will invest £1.1
billion of public money from government and the National Lottery
in supporting the arts. This is the bedrock of support for the
arts in England.
2. As an organisation, we were delighted
that London won its bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games—a bid that put the arts firmly at its centre. We believe
that the 2012 Games will be a unique opportunity to reinforce
the UK's reputation as a world leader in culture.
3. As the national development agency for
the arts in England, no other body is better placed in our national
cultural life to advise on and deliver a world-class cultural
festival and a cultural legacy to match. Our vision for the cultural
Olympiad is a vibrant, rewarding environment in which UK artists
can express and fulfil their creative potential, highlighting
the diversity that enriches our culture. The legacy will be individuals
and communities inspired to take part in the arts, raising young
people's aspirations for years to come.
OUR INVOLVEMENT
TO DATE
Pre-bid
4. Our engagement with London 2012 began
early in 2004, working to ensure that the cultural aspect of the
Olympic and Paralympic bid was included at the earliest opportunity.
As well as providing around £100,000 of funding to support
the cultural bid in a variety of ways, we also seconded two full-time
staff to the London 2012 bid team for 18 months, worked proactively,
through funding and other support, with the five Olympic boroughs
to secure agreement on the joint cultural action plan and brokered
relations between the bid team and the arts and cultural sector.
Vision 2012
5. In April 2006, we set up our project
board for the Olympics and Paralympics "Vision 2012",
which is jointly led by Peter Hewitt, our chief executive, and
Sarah Weir, executive director of our London region. The project
board's membership includes internal and external expertise, representing
the diversity of London's arts and cultural sector and including
the Director of Culture, Ceremonies and Education for LOCOG as
well as our internal lead on Liverpool 08. We are currently recruiting
a project manager for Vision 2012.
6. In Our agenda for the arts 2006-08, we
set out our commitment to "contribute to the early stages
of planning for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 and the
culture, education and ceremonies programme culminating in the
Beijing closing ceremony in 2008".
7. We therefore welcome this opportunity
to make a submission to this inquiry so early on in our work to
deliver on our vision for the 2012 Games. We would ask the committee
to consider that much of our work on this area is still developing.
We hope to make further, detailed submissions to the committee
in future and would welcome the committee's recommendations in
light of this.
FUNDING THE
CULTURAL FESTIVAL
8. The committee will be aware that "Ceremonies
and Culture" was allocated total funding of £64.4 million
from the overall 2012 Olympic and Paralympic budgets. This figure
includes the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics and
Paralympics and medal ceremonies, as well as £18.75 million
for the Cultural Programme.
9. We have been actively involved in a joint
initiative with the Millennium Commission, the Big Lottery Fund
and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to endow
a new charitable trust which will make grants to support a range
of cultural and sporting initiatives associated with the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As the trust is currently still
in the development stage, we cannot give full details at the moment
as to how it will operate. However, we have fully supported the
ambitions for the trust from its inception. The funding available
via the trust is currently £40 million, which exceeds that
allocated to the Cultural Programme, although this also will be
shared with education and sport projects, including the annual
UK School Games which commenced this year. We are currently planning
to provide funding of £5 million. The Millennium Commission
is providing £24 million, with a further £5 million
coming from the Big Lottery Fund and £6 million from government.
10. In addition, we will continue to operate
our successful and popular Grants for the Arts programme of funding.
This open application grants scheme distributes Lottery funding
and has been widely recognised by artists and arts organisations
for simplifying arts funding in England. The 2005-06 allocation
for Grants for the arts is £85.2 million.
11. The committee should note that, while
budgets beyond 2006-07 have not yet been set, the overall allocation
to this scheme is set to reduce from the current level. We understand
that £410 million will be top sliced from the Lottery good
causes fund to support the financing of the Olympics. An indication
of potential timing of this has been provided to us, but the basis
on which this adjustment will be made is still to be determined.
Early clarification of this is important for all lottery distributors
to enable proper budget planning. We believe that a proportionate
adjustment between all the lottery distributors in line with the
current shares of the good causes fund is the only equitable and
fair approach to take. We would seek the committee's endorsement
of this position.
MAXIMISING THE
CULTURAL LEGACY
12. Arts Council England's vision for the
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is for a celebration of imagination
and creativity that inspires individuals and communities to take
part in the arts, maximising cultural benefits and raising the
aspirations of young people for years to follow the 30th Olympiad.
One of the keys to the success of the London 2012 bid was partnership
working and we are keen to see this carried through to the delivery
of the Cultural Festival. Indeed, it is our view that effective
partnership working will just as critical to maximising legacy.
13. We are represented by Sarah Weir on
DCMS's national Culture and Creativity Forum and Arts Council
England, London has an active relationship with the Greater London
Authority and the London Development Agency (LDA). Our membership
of the London Cultural Consortium means we are also represented
on its special sub-group for London Olympic issues. Indeed, given
the multiplicity of interested cultural bodies and other stakeholders
both nationally and in London, effective partnership working guided
by a coherent framework, with a view to the longer term, may become
a key factor in the success of the Cultural Festival.
Thames Gateway
14. The arts have a major part to play in
helping to galvanise community engagement and participation in
planning, and in creating a sense of identity and pride. We are
committed to working closely with DCMS, the Department for Communities
and Local Government and other agencies to implement a strategy
to improve cultural provision and creative industries employment
in the places experiencing housing-led growth such as the Thames
Gateway. Delivering on this is one of our priorities set out in
Our agenda for the arts 2006-08.
15. In Thames Gateway London, where the
seven boroughs include the five Olympic boroughs, we are already
working with the Thames Gateway London Partnership and have provided
joint-funding with Sport England, Heritage Lottery Fund and the
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council for a culture co-ordinator
post as well as investment alongside the LDA and Corporation of
London in the work of the Thames Gateway creative and cultural
industries task group. Our East and South East offices are similarly
engaged with Thames Gateway South Essex and North Kent.
BENEFITING ALL
THE ENGLISH
REGIONS
16. Arts Council England has a strong regional
structure, with decision-making on grants and regular funding
for organisations devolved to our nine regional offices, which
are coterminous with the government's regional offices. The last
10 years has seen a shift in our resources away from London. Our
regional offices are centres of expertise on the arts ecology
of their regions and are uniquely placed to act as a bridge between
national and regional agencies to maximise the investment in,
and impact of, the arts sector. Indeed, the regional development
agencies are increasingly our major strategic partners.
17. Our regional strength means we are well
placed to distribute the benefits of the Cultural Festival beyond
London. Our Vision 2012 project therefore also includes a networking
group. This has representatives from all nine of our regional
offices and, through their involvement in the regional cultural
consortiums, each is also linking up with LOCOG's nations and
regions group. In addition, we have excellent working relations
with all the other UK arts councils and have pro-actively led
on arranging joint meetings between these councils in relation
to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
CONCLUSION
18. For us, that the cultural festival will
reflect and harness the vibrancy and diversity of the arts across
England, and the UK's leading place in the arts globally, will
be as critical to the success of the Olympics and Paralympics
as the smooth running of the games themselves. We are committed
to working with government and with LOCOG to deliver on this ambition
and to make its impact last. As the committee will see from this
submission, we are well advanced in our planning to achieve this.
19. But the Olympics and Paralympics have
the potential to leave a wider legacy for our country's cultural
life—one that cements in government and politics an enduring
recognition of the value we all derive from public investment
that celebrates the human spirit and achievement.
5 October 2006
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