Arts funds helping to level up the city
WIDELY regarded as the founder of modern macroeconomics, John Maynard Keynes was the driving force behind the creation of the Arts Council and instrumental in drafting its first Royal Charter.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, his vision to nurture the grassroots of an English renaissance and boost morale through culture gave rise to the formalisation of funding for the arts.
Keynes also spoke of his hopes that one day ‘the theatre, the concert hall and the gallery will be a living element in everyone’s upbringing.’
Fast forward to 2020, the Arts Council published its 10-year Let’s Create strategy and a commitment to bring ‘worldclass art and culture to people’s doorsteps’ so that everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to benefit from public investment in culture and creativity.
Notwithstanding the postcovid precarity and fragility of the current business models of publicly funded arts organisations across the country, to deliver its Let’s Create ambitions and address a widening gulf in engagement, geographically and socioeconomically, a significant rebalancing shift in the funding of culture was unavoidable.
Historically, despite the incalculable benefits financial resourcing of the arts brings, ‘left behind cities’ like Stoke-ontrent struggled to build cultural capacity because of long-term underinvestment.
Taking the bold decision to bid for UK City of Culture was a catalyst for change. By galvanising people from different sectors and communities to come together, the bidding process helped to make the business case for culture.
Crucially, it also gave a voice to arts organisations who felt they had not previously been heard. This coincided with bodies such as the Arts Council committing to shift new investment to so-called ‘priority places’ previously at the back of the funding queue.
On the back of the city of culture bid, it was recognised that although engagement in the arts locally was still comparatively low, our cultural organisations demonstrated a genuine commitment to artistic excellence and ambition.
And because there was so much happening to reinvigorate the city’s cultural infrastructure, the Arts Council committed to working with us to keep the momentum going.
As the first National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) locally, the New Vic Theatre was influential in bringing a consortium together to secure Creative People and Places funding. This enabled Appetite to arouse latent enthusiasm for the arts among diverse communities.
In 2018, B-arts and the British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) were also awarded NPO status and together with the New Vic became the backbone of a Potteries creative resurgence.
Further investment underpinned the creation of the Cultural Education Partnership and Cultural Destinations and subsequently the formation of Stoke Creates, a collaboration designed to support coordinated action to grow the city’s cultural ecosystem.
With Stoke-on-trent named as one of the ‘Levelling Up for Culture Places’, there was a collective sigh of relief for the region’s enterprising artist-led organisations when the latest round of NPOS was announced last week.
Three years of committed funding of almost £2.3 million annually will enable Claybody Theatre, Restoke, the Portland
Inn Project, Partners in Creative Learning and Frontline Dance together with the established, cultural flagships to deliver strongly against the Let’s Create ambitions.
Viscerally connected and rooted in the communities in which they work, the eight NPOS and ACAVA Studios, a Londonbased organisation with an active presence in Spode, have a collective responsibility to work with Stoke Creates to protect and develop the arts and culture ecology.
Inevitably, in any competitive bidding process it might seem invidious to make special mention of local beneficiaries of this pivot of funding.
This was a no-win situation for the Arts Council, but it goes a long way towards addressing a longstanding regional imbalance.
With a nod to Claybody Theatre’s patron, Toby Jones, it is also ‘an endorsement of the dynamism, pride and resourcefulness’ that all the NPOS have demonstrated in a city that may have lost the bid, but is winning with culture.
Now, let’s re-energise and coalesce around a new vision as we continue to create and tell our distinctive ‘made in Stoke-ontrent’ cultural story.