http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10761225

The current gov wish to close the UK Film Council!

Grrrr… soo much to type and have a rant about, but wont bore you all.. Looks like its American car chases from here on in…
Bloody conservatives, and the current bunch of liberals for not standing up to them enough to get this one voted out.

This is just the tip of the iceberg where the arts are concerned. Arts Council have just been told they need to find an additional 4% cuts on top of cuts already agreed, councils have got to reduce their spending by about 25% over the next few years and you can be sure that arts/museums/heritage will be seen as a soft target.

growl.

I know. I am apoplectic with rage. I can barely speak.

I know it’s awful, and I don’t want to upset anyone, but I would rather they stop the funding for something like this rather than cut the funding on hospitals, etc, etc.  (I’ll go and hide now)

Is this part of the aimed-for 50 per cent cuts in the culture budget?

Take your point Shell entirely, but would like to highlight all the other things that now fall under the ‘culture’ budget. For example, our allotment site now falls under that department locally. Not sure if this is the same in other areas, but this means that the Council is now trying to cut essential maintenance (they don’t do much as it is) and push us towards self-management. It might be a good thing in the long term, but not if we are pushed into it and can’t maintain the infrastructure with our small committee.

So how does cutting the budget on allotments support our health and well-being? Surely it undermines it - allotments are widely known for helping rehabilitation of all sorts of things, and helping with healthy eating e.t.c…

I see a ‘budget cuts’ thread coming on…anyone game…?

best
w.w.

Sorry Shell, this has been doing my head in all night. I want to leave it but I can’t. The arts and culture in this country are a profit making industry, yes there have to be grants in the beginning to get people started but so do they grant such money to new businesses. I am an actress, not a paediatric surgeon but am I a lesser person for it? No. I use my art as an outlet for my mental health issues amongst other things (like paying the mortgage and buying slings !) I have become a victim of these arts funding cuts this year - the last government cut the budgets too - and am now falling prey to my depression again thus I am dependent on the services of the Maudsley and unable to vent my madnesses in the theatre for the entertainment and delight of paying audiences! I facilitate drama workshops for fellow nutcases so that we may all use the NHS a little less heavily and our own psyche a little more lavishly to aid our restoration to sanity! I jest of course but the point I make is not funny.

Without the arts eventually the theatre, decent television programming, radio, music both live and recorded, films, video games, dance, poetry, creative writing and other media would die a death. No, it’s not directly life saving as in a surgical scenario but indirectly it’s preventative of many health related factors and isn’t prevention better than cure? We rely on the diversions and entertainments to distract us from the hardships and monotony of life. Why did cave men paint on walls? Why did they devise dance and chanting and beat drums? Because we need art and culture to survive. It’s communication, it’s a social record, it’s the expression of our anima, it’s more than just some wankers swanning about in costumes. 

I had a nasty run in with this bloke once but I forgive him a little for writing this this week!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23858969-the-arts-cannot-survive-on-rich-backers-alone.do

Oh Hun, I didn’t want to upset anyone, and I agree whole heartedly with you -I love the arts, I love free museums, I love free art galleries.  These things arn’t going to last, though, with the state that the economy is in (not just from this government either), I think I was just trying to point out that they are not going to shut a hospital/police station/fire station though, it’s all the good stuff that we will lose.  I just don’t put my point across quite so eliquently as you do. 

PS my crafting is my sanity too, so I know exactly where your coming from.

I just get so cross at people having a go at the arts like it’s something expendable, I’m meant to be grateful for my employment and do it for free just because it’s enjoyable when I go to work! It gets my goat and my goat was got earlier but I don’t want to or mean to have a go at you personally. I’m glad you see the other side of it too, it’s important to me for so many reasons and I’m glad that you use your creativity for assuaging the dark demons too - that’s part of why we need art so much! They should not be cutting but investing right now, just when we need it most!

Happy crafting, thanks for the morning debate *shaking hands* and I hope we do it again some time!

Shell and Rachael, don’t mean to sound patronising but wanted to thank you both for the great points that you are both making.
On the culture front losing my allotment
doesn’t bear thinking about…maybe the answer is to keep looking at the justification for some cuts very closely. After all, they’re not discussing scrapping the many billions that are spent on the military in favour of maintaining hospitals, are they?
best
w.w.

@ WW - Thanks love. And no, they’re bloody well not! Defense budgets are one thing but ludicrous syphoning off of monies that are redirected away from the military covertly so that it never reaches troups who are in dire need of new uniforms after being shelled silly in Darfour, is quite another Don’t get me started on self serving career politicians!

It enrages me that the arts are somehow considered superficial and not essential services. To many people they are indeed life saving. In my institution we have been running programmes with people recovering from addiction, many of whom have been so depressed that they have considered or attempted suicide. Creative projects literally save the lives of some people in this situation because they give them something to live for. We also run programmes for the elderly and people with alzheimers who have nothing to do except sit around watching tv while their brains slowly deteriorate in unstimulating environments. Arts and reminiscence projects, run by people from local authority museums are hugely valuable and have real health benefits.  They therefore save money in other services. Other museums run really important programmes with young offenders, in prisons etc etc. There are thousands of similar projects quietly being delivered by museums services all over hte country which are not considered part of our health service in a broad sense, when they should be. Museums also do a great deal with very little money and it is never going to be a question of scrap a museums service or close a hospital as the hospital costs massively more than a museums service. As Rachael says, we need the arts most in a crisis!

Oooh, you leave a thread for five minutes and debate insues…
For interested parties, a link to do more - perhaps in the ‘big society’ (don’t get me started on that one!) we CAN make a difference?

http://www.savethefilmcouncil.co.uk/