The Arts

I bloody love ‘the arts.’ I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the theatre. I spend a lot of time in them watching, supporting, acting that without this artform I’d be someone else and somewhere else entirely. I’m a drama llama. Without podcasts keeping me company, music filling my life, tv and movies for relaxing, I don’t know what I’d do. So it pains me that our government is now saying that ‘Mickey Mouse’ university courses that will inevitable include arts courses are to be limited. Apparently these courses are a rip off because they don’t provide enough ‘good outcomes.’ Just so you’re aware, they haven’t actually said which courses, or what the outcomes are that are needed. They’ve just said – these courses add no economic benefit and keep kids in debt – so we’re cutting them. Seemingly without understanding that sometimes the point of education is furthering yourself as a person, not just to get some coin at the end. And it is always weird that these Tories will impose limits on what your children do, but not their own. It’s a personal affront if you ask what their kids are doing, but your kids can have their options restricted.

In times of mental strife and horrific war, the arts come into their own. World War I poetry is hauntingly beautiful in describing what was a horrific and brutal conflict. A way to heal some of the wounds inflicted on a population. These right wing clackers love quoting Winston Churchill and there’s a famous quote attributed to Churchill where apparently he stated that if we cut arts funding during World War II ‘then what are we fighting for?’ Well it turns out he probably didn’t say that, but he did say the below:

The arts are essential to any complete national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them.

winston churchill

So I wanted to have a look at the numbers. What do the arts contribute to the economy and I found this report from 2019. I thought it would be good if I looked at the numbers before Covid decimated the industry. This report was published on 17 April 2019 and you can click on the link below to read it, with some highlights underneath:

• The arts and culture industry has grown £390 million in a year and now contributes £10.8 billion a year to the UK economy.
• The sector contributes £2.8 billion a year to the Treasury via taxation and generates a further £23 billion a year and 363,700 jobs.
• Productivity in the arts and culture industry between 2009 and 2016 was greater than that of the economy as a whole, with gross value added per worker at £62,000 for arts and culture, compared to £46,800 for the wider UK economy.

So this monetary contribution is massive to our economy. But not only that, the output of our arts industry, theatre, music, film and TV travels across the globe. Second to America, our output is consumed the way I consume sweets and chocolate. Often and probably a bit too much to be healthy. This is soft power. A way of showing off our cultural values to those overseas and influencing them. You know, another way in which we’re great that they want to stifle. It also creates tourism, another boon to our economy. Just think of the amount of people that have come to the UK because of the Harry Potter books and films alone. And just think of the amount of money that those people spent whilst they were here. You go to Stratford-Upon-Avon on a wet and windy Tuesday in February and there are tourists abound, wanting to soak up some Shakespeare.

Arts, culture. They mean something. They contribute. So do the course or the thing that you want to do to enrich your life. And don’t listen to these wankers that want to restrict you.