All Change In Arts Funding: Crisis Or Opportunity?

A Battle Satellite round-table rumble, part of the Battle of Ideas festival

The news last year that Newcastle was planning to completely cut its arts budget (before settling on a 50% reduction) was a stark reminder of the challenges facing the arts in the recession. Yet while culture secretary Maria Miller provoked fury by insisting that the funding should be viewed as ‘venture capital’ rather than hand-outs, some see it as a logical outcome for an income stream which has become increasingly focused around meeting box-ticking criteria and economic objectives rather than outright artistic merit. Should the arts be more willing to embrace the freedom of alternative funding models – from crowd-sourcing to corporate sponsorship - or will the market prove even more hostile to challenging, experimental work? Have arts organisations made mistakes in justifying their work in economic terms for so long, or were such arguments a necessary evil to secure important funding? Will public access to the arts be dealt a mortal blow by the cuts, or will it only really impact work which is already struggling to find an audience?

Join a round-table panel of commentators, arts professionals and campaigners in this lively, no-holds-barred public debate, part of the Battle of Ideas festival

Speakers:

-Stella Duffy (writer and theatre-maker; award-winning author of short stories, plays and novels)
-Dr Jonathan Holmes (artistic director, Jericho; playwright; author, Fallujah and Katrina
-more TBC

Chair: David Bowden (satellite co-ordinator, Battle of Ideas; columnist, spiked)