Saturday, December 28, 2024
Culture in crisis
The paper says that leaders in the sector are urgently demanding major investment from the new Labour government as they grapple with fresh challenges including rising energy bills and the hike to employer national insurance contributions in the Budget:
After years of cutbacks and underfunding, they have warned of “the danger of cultural wastelands” in a direct appeal to the chancellor Rachel Reeves and the culture secretary Lisa Nandy.
According to a report by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre, one in five venues needs at least £5m of investment over the next decade just to continue operating, and without significant capital investment 40 per cent could close in the next five years.
There are around 1,110 theatres currently operating across the UK, according to the Theatres Trust.
The report also warns that:
* £20m is needed to save museums from shutting down
* 525 museums have already shut since the year 2000
* In the last year, London’s Jewish Museum, along with the Simon Lee, Fold, and Darren Flook galleries in Mayfair and Fitzrovia have closed
* Literary festivals are also under threat, with the announcement in September that Chipping Norton’s ChipLitFest will no longer take place
SOLT and UK Theatre co-chief executive Hannah Essex said: “We have a world-leading theatre sector that prides itself on its creativity and passion and is beloved by audiences across the country. However, theatres are having to cope with ever-increasing financial pressures.
“Production costs are rising faster than inflation, with energy bills up 120 per cent since 2019. Public investment in the arts has declined by 48 per cent in real terms over the past 14 years, and 40 per cent of venues risk closure over the next five years without significant capital investment.”
Looking at the impact of Rachel Reeves’s Budget, Ms Essex added: “Theatres are now facing additional challenges, with the rises in business costs with national insurance and national living wage increases, adding to the fragility of the sector and resulting in many theatres facing difficult decisions.
“We are working with the government to identify ways to put the sector on a more stable footing and unleash the potential for growth in communities across the country.”
The report points out that for every £1 spent on a theatre ticket, an additional spend of £1.40 is generated in the local economy.
Meanwhile, the director of the Museums Association, Sharon Heal, told The Independent: “In the 20 years that I have worked in the sector, this is the most challenging period, with many museums facing outright closure, loss of expert staff, and restricted opening hours.”
She continued: “Museums hold our national and local collections and contribute to our understanding of where we have come from, as well as offering many health, wellbeing, and learning opportunities. Without them, our towns and cities would be far less rich and vibrant places to live.”
The biggest problem faced by museums is that many are reliant on local authorities to provide funding and support, but drops in revenue often mean that they are the first to lose out when councils look for savings.
Ms Heal said: “The Museums Association and the English Civic Museums Network had asked for a £20m stabilisation fund for town and city museums, to prevent immediate threats of closure and insolvency, and although we didn’t get that in the Budget, we are still hopeful that the government will recognise the dire situation that many of these museums face.
“The rise in NI contributions will mean that some museums will come out of the Budget worse off, and we are calling for an exemption for museums to recognise that many of them are charities, often operating with very small margins.”
This is an issue facing all parts of the UK, and if action is not taken soon then the cultural future of this country will be very bleak indeed.
