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- (applause) - Morning, everyone.
Do you know, I never before had trouble standing on a stage.
But after last night's unbelievably brilliant and inspiring lecture,
I think I may have to go into therapy. I'm twitching.
Anyway, it's lovely to see everybody.
Thank you for coming.
Welcome to Thessaloniki.
The credit rating is tottering. Life is serious.
And, of course, we are all thinking about jobs,
revenue generation, economic growth.
And inevitably, now more than ever,
the public debate about the arts is focused on the bottom line.
We talk endlessly about art in terms of regeneration,
creative economy, return on investment, and fair enough.
The instrumental value of the arts to wealth, to mental and physical health,
to education, to social coherence,
is real and enormously, enormously important.
But today is about something else.
Today is about the extraordinary and essential role
which artists play in our society.
Their genius, their needs,
their contribution to what matters in all our lives.
I've never met an artist who set out to work with their pen or their brush
or their piano with the sole aim of contributing to the creative economy.
Artists work to explore, to crash through our received ideas,
to show us personal and unique perspectives,
to express anger and love and fear and awe.
Great art isn't about economics.
It's about the ambiguity and restraint of Gerhard Richter's September,
the lyrical insight of James McCarthy's 17 Days,
the breath-stopping horror of Jacobi's Lear,
the exploration of personal landscapes of Akram Khan's DESH,
the relentless looking and looking of David Hockney or Lucian Freud.
These works, these artists,
some exalted, others setting out to develop their voices,
tell us something about ourselves, about how we live
and about what it is to be alive at this time.
And the tougher the economic climate,
the more fearsome the threats to our ordered and tolerant society,
the more important they are
and the more art doesn't just reflect society but shape it too.
So what's the Arts Council doing to support artists
in this extraordinary enterprise?
Our role is just to create the conditions
for the most talented artists to emerge and reach their potential.
A job which starts in the earliest years and it continues through life.
Artists need to be able to take risks, to innovate and to change direction,
to continually redefine what great art can be.
And that means they not only need enough to eat and pay the rent,
but also time and space for research and development,
access to workspaces, opportunities to showcase,
critical and supportive feedback, help in realising an ambitious idea,
and the chance to collaborate both at home and abroad.
We at the Arts Council want to be an organisation
that offers intelligent support
and that backs artists at the times in their career when they need it most.
An organisation that encourages and recognises
the changing way in which artists are working,
where lines between traditional art forms are blurring
and new technologies are being incorporated to create innovative work.
An organisation that artists feel they can come to as partners and colleagues.
The Arts Council's relationship with individual artists is, of course,
often carried on through the companies or institutions they work in.
But we are acutely conscious of how important it is
that individual artists see us as their place
quite as much as arts institutions do.
Which is one of the reasons why, despite the spending review cuts,
we have freed up £12 million a year for Grants for the Arts,
our open application fund
that invests in around 2,000 ground-breaking projects every year.
So, despite hard things,
the Arts Council remains very much open to investing in new ideas
and creative talent.
But helping talent to thrive isn't just about investing in individual artists,
it's also about managing the legions of creative individuals
that help great art to happen.
That's why we also want to back the programmers, creative producers,
curators, editors and animateurs
whose artistry brings work to the public in fresh and engaging ways.
So while artists themselves will always be at the heart of our approach,
we will support the networks and the infrastructure
that discover and develop talent.
And as we have to reduce our own expert staff
we're going to rely even more on those networks
to supplement the work we can tackle directly.
We need better networks between our funded organisations, too,
something we're going to be working on in the coming months.
Incidentally, the Olympics have been a great boost here.
We need to be sure we don't waste that new spirit of cooperation
which they've engendered.
2012, despite everything, does really feel like a year
of the most tremendous opportunity for artists across the country.
Later this year, of course, will be the greatest showcase of them all,
the London Olympics.
Our creative minds are already putting themselves
at the heart of the Olympic celebrations
with outstanding projects taking shape all over the country,
from Anthony McCall's Column in Merseyside
to the Thames being transformed into a River of Music.
The Cultural Olympiad is going to show the world
that there is no country that can compete
with the restless innovation of British artists.
And in the run-up to the Olympics comes the project I feel most excited about,
because I believe it could be a real watershed
in the way that culture and the arts develop in the rest of our lifetimes.
Alan mentioned The Space,
the new digital arts media service we're launching alongside the BBC in May.
This is a real step into the unknown for the Arts Council, and for artists.
Of course it's a huge risk,
but fortune favours the brave, and without courage there is no creativity.
So we're plunging in
and so are artists and arts organisations all over the country.
We've had an extraordinary response
from people applying to have their work commissioned for this service.
The work of shaping and commissioning is going at breakneck speed
but sadly not quite fast enough for me to tell you today
who is going to be there on day one.
You'll have to wait till next week when we'll be announcing
the 60 or 70 projects that will be appearing on The Space
as we look to showcase the best of this country's art and culture in new ways.
The Space will, of course,
open up completely new ways of distributing artists' work digitally.
And today I'm delighted to announce another very different initiative
which we hope will also help artists
to broaden their physical and cultural horizons.
In what is a new chapter
in the relationship between the Arts Council and the British Council,
we're launching the Artists' International Development Fund,
which is a £750,000 fund to support English artists to travel,
explore and collaborate internationally,
developing markets and audiences overseas for their work.
The fund will open for applications next month,
and it responds to the evident and increasing insistence by artists
that they need access to their peers, to audiences and to influences
from other places and other cultures.
And the fund will, I hope, be a valuable help to artists
to build on domestic success at crucial stages of their career.
Life at the Arts Council in day-to-day contact with artists
is an extraordinary experience.
Mostly, it's just a joy and a privilege.
Night after night, day after day,
to go out and see, hear or read work of such exceptional range and richness
that it truly does feel like a golden age,
if one that feels slightly on the edge of the unknown.
Now and then, artists being artists, there is the odd outbreak of behaviour
which wouldn't be welcome at a vicarage tea party,
but the overwhelming experience is of people who are risking their all
in front of audiences every time they leave home
and who do it for tiny rewards and for the sheer love of their art.
For the Arts Council, creative talent is where it all begins and ends.
Supporting artists so you can thrive is central to everything we do.
We are just a means to an end.
And though we work hard to be the most effective means we can possibly be,
we never forget which way round it works.
Thank you.
(applause)
And now it's my very pleasant job to introduce our next speaker,
Ed Vaizey, minister for culture, communications and creative industries.
He's such an energetic minister
that I think he's known personally to almost everybody in this room.
But still...
I think of him as an arts minister
who first and foremost visibly adores his job,
and who has finally got the Department of Education
to think creatively about culture
and who has broken new ground in government support
for new areas of the creative industries -
in particular, things like gaming and video games.
A really exciting way to do that very difficult job.
Because, of course, as he occasionally grumbles to me,
the Arts Council gets all the fun and he gets all the problems.
But I think we are exceptionally fortunate
to have a minister with so much commitment to the job he's doing.
So with great pleasure, I would like you to welcome
on his return visit to the State of the Arts conference,
our national Valentine, Ed Vaizey.
(applause)
Thank you very much, Liz. I'm speechless.
There's definitely an outbreak of love
and a Valentine's theme at today's conference,
although I did hear Liz's definition of an artist
as somebody who risks all in front of an audience every time they leave home.
So I suppose for the next ten minutes, I will be an artist
for the purposes of this speech.
So today is Valentine's Day and that is going to be the theme
of almost every speech that's made from this podium.
So I want to rise to the challenge of Valentine's Day
and talk about the state of our relationship.
I want to start with a declaration of love.
I want to echo what Liz said in her introduction.
I love being the Minister of Culture
and I love representing this sector.
It's a huge privilege,
it's a pleasure to represent such an important part of our national life.
And, of course, in a time of economic austerity and uncertainty -
again, I suspect, a theme that we'll hear a lot of today -
I think that the arts are more important than ever before.
But I also think that more and more people now recognise
that you, the people in this room, are brilliant at what you do.
And what you do is important.
And I do come from the school of thought
that believes that the arts are their own justification,
valuable in and of themselves.
I don't think the arts do have to find other arguments
to support the importance of what you do every day.
But, in any event, if you do, I think those arguments have been made
and made very forcefully and effectively.
Because nobody today would doubt the contribution the arts make
to our economy, to our communities,
to our schools, to our wellbeing.
And I think today we see it more than ever before.
But I think, wherever you look at the moment,
British creativity is having a massive impact, here and abroad.
Whether it's the Leonardo, the Freud, the Hockney drawing massive crowds,
Hirst coming at Tate Modern,
War Horse, Jerusalem, One Man, Two Guvnors,
British artists like Adele dominating the charts,
British films topping the box office,
British fashion centre-stage.
Around the country, new and ambitious museums and galleries are opening
from Turner in Margate to Hepworth in Wakefield,
from M Shed in Bristol to Firstsite in Colchester,
Nottingham Contemporary to the recently refurbished Holburne Museum in Bath.
So I think these are brilliant and exciting times for the arts,
but, as I said, I wanted today to talk about our relationship.
I think with any relationship it's important to know where we're going.
So today is an opportunity for me to set out our approach to culture.
First of all, I want to make it absolutely clear
that we believe that government should provide the core funding for the arts.
I know that many relationships do founder over money
and ours may be no different.
But I am pleased at a time of economic austerity
that we've managed to limit the reduction in arts funding
via the Arts Council to less than 5% in real terms.
And the Arts Council will now receive
something like £2.3 billion over the next four years.
And secondly, I want to make it clear
that we support the mixed-economy model for funding the arts,
something that is almost unique to this country and, I think, very important.
It means that the arts can support themselves
through a combination of government funding,
philanthropy and fundraising and earned income.
As part of this support, as part of this ecology,
we've looked at ways to increase philanthropy and help with fundraising.
And I want to make it clear that is not to replace government funding
but to help the arts.
So despite the tough economic times,
we've introduced an inheritance tax break
for people who want to leave money to the arts in their will.
We've introduced a tax break if people give art to museums while still alive.
We've increased the threshold for acceptance in lieu by £10 million.
And we've established with the Arts Council
a match-funding and capacity-building scheme to help the arts raise more money
from the private sector, individuals and charitable foundations.
The Catalyst fund, which is worth about £100 million,
will announce its first awards in May.
And we've also created separate trusts for our national museums,
to ensure that they can spend the money they raise
without it being counted as public spending.
Third, let me make clear as well
that we support absolutely the arm's-length principle.
We want arts and artists to be as independent of government as possible.
It doesn't mean the government shouldn't have an arts policy
or that it shouldn't direct money towards programmes
it believes will be beneficial to the arts,
whether it be philanthropy or education.
But it does mean that the Arts Council should be free to support
the arts organisations it feels are worthy of support
without interference from politicians.
So far, so evolutionary.
I think the fourth principle that I've tried to pursue as arts minister
is to break down silos,
the silos that exist within the arts
and the silos that exist between the arts and other creative industries.
I find it frustrating that many pioneering arts organisations
don't have the opportunity to share their expertise with others.
It frustrates me that the arts which are the bedrock of our creative industries
are not seen as an essential contributor
to the debate about the future of those creative industries.
And it concerns me that the arts may not be benefiting
from the revolution in technology that we're seeing in the 21st century.
So everywhere, all across the piece, we're looking at collaboration.
So we've established the Creative Industries Council.
That brings together BIS and DCMS
and it brings together the creative industries
and the public service broadcasters.
But it also brings the Arts Council to the table
to take part in that conversation and work on a common agenda
as an equal partner with all those organisations.
We've merged the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council with the Arts Council,
bringing together formally for the first time
libraries, regional museums and cultural organisations.
We've established a creative industries funders' forum,
bringing together the Arts Council with NESTA,
the Technology Strategy Board,
which is not a name that sings out
as an organisation that would have an interest in the arts, but it does,
the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Creative England,
the British Film Institute, Skillset,
to look at how working together, we can more effectively support the arts.
And the Arts Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council and NESTA
have come together to create the Digital R&D Fund
to help the arts and heritage benefit from developments in technology.
And as Alan and Liz have already talked about,
the incredibly exciting collaboration between the Arts Council and the BBC -
which, by the way, I'm not taking credit for,
I'm merely an enthusiastic bystander -
collaborating on The Space, which some have described
as the most significant cultural intervention in this country
since the Arts Council itself was formed.
I want to do more.
And my challenge for the Arts Council
is that it can be much clearer about the development work that it does
and look at how it could do it more effectively.
It needs to be an organisation that shares ideas between the arts.
It needs to work as much with those it doesn't fund as with those it does.
It needs to work both with not-for-profits and with business
and learn from both.
I'm also, as many of you will know,
very excited about what technology can do for the arts.
I think it provides an unprecedented opportunity
to reach out to new audiences.
I don't regard technology in binary terms,
that somehow the future is going to be completely different from the past.
I think that's nonsense.
We're all going to still want to go to see live theatre,
music, dance, or visit galleries and museums.
But I do passionately believe that technology can enhance that experience
by deepening it and enriching it
or by simply engaging with people who may not know what is happening
very near to where they are.
And in the 21st century, as Patrick Hussey from Arts & Business wrote
in his wonderful blog on the Guardian,
algorithms can be almost as important to the arts as audiences,
because algorithms help you engage with new audiences.
And also, I think the thing about technology
is that it's about informality.
It's about flattening hierarchies and removing barriers.
And I think that's something that arts in all their forms should embrace.
So I think the arts should be seen as leaders in innovation in technology
as much as any other part of our national life.
Fundamentally, what we want to achieve is the long-overdue recognition
that the arts sit at the centre of the changes we're experiencing,
not at the periphery,
and that in this kind of world
the importance of the arts is growing, not diminishing.
And I'm delighted that others are getting the message.
I saw a speech by David Willetts, our science minister, last month,
who said instead of just thinking about STEM,
science, technology, engineering and maths,
we should add the arts so it becomes STEAM.
I was delighted when I commissioned a report
on skills in the video games industry,
that one of the most important recommendations
from two people working in that industry
was about the importance of the arts to their industry.
And finally,
I want to ensure that as many people as possible experience the arts,
starting in our schools.
We've already maintained free entry to our national museums
and that perhaps could be
a principle of our cultural strategy all on its own.
But we need to reach out in other ways.
Following Darren Henley's music review,
we launched the first ever national plan for music education.
I think that is a massive achievement.
It's an example of close collaboration
between the DCMS and the Department for Education.
And again, it's heartening, I think,
if you're looking for ways to justify the arts,
that the Department for Education in the national music plan
explicitly recognises the importance of music and music education
in underpinning a rigorous academic education.
And the plan also puts the Arts Council and therefore arts organisations
at the centre of the strategy.
It's the Arts Council that will be assessing the bids for funding
in the next few months.
Again, we're looking to break down barriers,
to see schools and local authority music services
working with leading local, regional and national music organisations
to deliver a rich, varied and full curriculum for schoolchildren.
Next week we're going to publish Darren Henley's review of cultural education
and we want to build on the national plan for music
with the first ever national plan for cultural education,
covering as much ground as possible
from archaeology to architecture and the built environment,
archives, craft, dance, design,
digital arts, drama and theatre, film and cinemas, galleries,
heritage, libraries, literature,
live performance, museums, poetry, and the visual arts.
We want to work with arts organisations large and small
and encourage them to play their part
in providing children with varied cultural experience.
The review process has already had an impact
with the main Lottery funders for arts, heritage and film
already looking at how they can work more closely together
on the ways that they support cultural education.
Amazingly, they'd never formally collaborated before.
Finally, we can't ensure that as many people experience the arts
unless the arts are in as many places as possible.
So we need to do much more
to support artists and arts organisations outside London.
The Catalyst fund will make an important contribution,
as will the continuing and expanded Grants for the Arts programme.
But I'm really delighted by the Arts Council's decision
to establish the £37 million Creative People and Places fund.
Over the next three years,
15 areas of the country with a low level of arts engagement
will receive grants of between £500,000 and £3 million
to establish innovative and fresh arts projects
to help build a vibrant cultural infrastructure.
That's exactly the kind of innovation we need.
So I think that's where we are in terms of our cultural strategy.
Funding secured, a mixed-economy model supported,
a focus on philanthropy with tax breaks and matched funding,
the arm's-length principle sitting at the centre.
A huge focus on collaboration, the use of technology,
working with the creative industries,
and a push towards a cultural education national plan.
And as Liz mentioned, 2012, our Olympic year,
is the year when Britain's creativity takes centre stage,
as it so deserves to.
When people come to Britain for the games,
I hope they'll see a confident, vibrant country regaining its strength
not at the expense of world-class culture and the arts
but precisely because of it.
For six weeks we're going to be at the centre of global attention.
The London 2012 Festival,
and here I pay tribute to Ruth Mackenzie's vision and determination,
will showcase the best that we have to offer
in the arts and creative industries.
West End LIVE will feature the cast of every single West End musical,
Gustavo Dudamel will perform with the children of Stirling,
Land of Giants, the largest outdoor arts event ever seen in Northern Ireland,
will be performed on the Titanic Slipway in Belfast.
And that's not to mention the likes of the UK premiere
of Wynton Marsalis's Swing Symphony conducted by Sir Simon Rattle,
or an epic new choral work from composer Jonathan Harvey,
to be performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
and a major exhibition of contemporary West African art in Manchester.
I hope you'll agree with me that there is a huge amount to look forward to.
And I'm sorry that a speech like this can never really avoid jargon
or the mundane prose of policy.
But we should never forget that at the heart of everything we do is the artist,
support for artists and freedom for artists.
As John F Kennedy so memorably said
when speaking about the poet Robert Frost,
"The artist is the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility
against an intrusive society and an officious state."
"The artist's fidelity strengthens the fibre of our national life."
"I see little of more importance
to the future of our country and our civilisation
than full recognition of the place of the artist."
And I say amen to that. Thank you very much.
(applause)
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