Public agrees with funding cuts...

[David Bolton]

From the BBC website:

 

2 September 2010

 

Two-thirds of people agree with the government's stance on cutting arts funding and increasing reliance on private cash, a survey has suggested.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11162816

 

 

[David Bolton]

Interestingly, the "survey" on which this story is based was undertaken by a financial investment company who also offer a prize for "figurative art" (whilst obliquely denigrating "abstract and conceptual art").

Thus it is pandering to the "I may not know much about art, but I know what I like" brigade. ("Well, some of this modern stuff... you just don't know what its supposed to be")

Not having seen the questionnaire, it is difficult to know how the results have been reached. Of course, it is quite easy to get people to answer a survey in the way you want, simply by the way you ask the questions.

For instance, if you ask "in these difficult times, should the government reduce the amount of your tax money that it gives to artists?" then it would be hardly surprising if the majority of people say "Yes" - especially if the same questionnaire talked about taxes being used to support "all this abstract stuff".

However, as this is the voice of corporate sponsorship of the arts, then maybe we can expect more of this sort of thing in the future.

See: http://www.threadneedle.com/en/global/threadneedle_prize.aspx

[Ceri Nicholls]

Having studied sociology in a past life, i know it's possible to prove anything you want with a survey.

I am disappointed that the BBC hasn't tried to give a more balanced view.

I am also now convinced that the culturally vibrant communities that have been nurtured throughout the previous governments term will return to being the cultural wastelands of the past Tory years.

Street crime will rise, self belief in change within communities first areas will disappear. Gangs, dealers and drugs will return.

[David Bolton]

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together...

- Ghostbusters (1984)

[Ceri Nicholls]

oh i dunno, i was thinking more watching the police hose the blood off the pavement outside my house where a pensioner was stabbed to death for his pension money.

or maybe the time i had a hole blasted through the side of my van when a gang member hid behind it from a rival gang member with a shot gun.

I believe arts initiatives can change the lives. If i didn't i would give a toss how much or little they were funded.

This really does not bode well.

[David Bolton]

Sorry to hear that, Ceri. But then incidents like that didn't exactly disapear while Labout were in charge. There are bad areas all across the UK, and the hotspots just shift around slightly with time. Unfortunately, I guess artists find themselves living in those hotspots more often than other professionals do.

[Mike Gibb, Operabase]

Calmatevi! It's just the usual sloppy, innumerate coverage of the cuts (disappointing that this example came from the BBC though).

The closest we get to the actual data (there being nothing on the Threadneedle sites yet) is this:
The Threadneedle Prize-commissioned survey found that 66% of respondents agreed that the majority of visual arts funding should come from corporate sponsorship and private donations.

somehow this, sloppily, carelessly, morphs into:
Two-thirds of people agree with the government's stance on cutting arts funding and increasing reliance on private cash, a survey has suggested.

The visual arts (please correct me if I'm wrong :-) are, compared with other subspecies of the arts, (a) a little less likely to require/ benefit from structural funding of an organisation, (b) a little more likely to find private money as they can reward buyers with a object they can personally own, and (c) not in receipt of a very significant amount of public funding anyway.

It's still not good news, but it's not anything like as bad as it was painted by some anonymous jobbing staff writer on the BBC website.

[Ceri Nicholls]

I was born in 1967 lived on a council estate most of my life. I have seen changes under the Labour governments initiatives that i never ever thought i would see here.

These initiatives have made my estate a much better place. Community partnerships bringing the people together through a lot of cross platform Arts based activities.

Many perceived barriers have been broken down and given people the confidence and the support network to allow them to achieve many goals.

I can't speak of other areas but the loss of funding to 39 Arts organisations here can only damage the good work already done and further cuts will be the death of many amazing organisations who have given communities their identity back.

I am a realist, not an idealist. I understand that not all problems disappeared but i don't think many realise how many communities have benefited from participation. My estate was the roughest in the area. Not anymore.

[Ceri Nicholls]

Emma McNeill said:

The article is nonsense and is thoroughly debunked here:

http://www.article19.co.uk/06/evilimp/this_bbc_this_slap_on_head.php

brilliant article!

[skinder hundal]

One has to question methodology, the sample and therefore credibility of the results here - who is asking the question and how independent the survey is for eg. Not sure simple yes no, tick box surveys actually capture the reality of people's real thoughts.

[Ceri Nicholls]

this is what i meant when i said that you can prove (or disprove) anything with a survey. When i studied sociology i read many sociological studies and the accompanying surveys and look at the demographic. They only ever targeted societies that they knew would give them the info they wanted.

I'm less than impressed by the BBC's scaremongering and propaganda tho.

[Mark Robinson]

BBC behaviour very peculiar I think - and not just about arts funding. Wrote about this on my blog yesterday, linking to Article 19 and goodpeice in yesterday's Guardian. http://thinkingpractice.blogspot.com/2010/09/british-broadcasting-c...