When George Osborne travelled to China in September, he took with him gifts of British artistic and cultural enterprise. He announced major projects on Shakespeare, Hockney and British landscape painting. It is British creative talent that appeals to China and the world.
For how long will the Chancellor and his successors be able to do this? For how long will we be able to promote abroad our cultural and creative talent, when at home they are being starved? The Chancellor understands the value and importance of the arts, but sadly others remain unconvinced.
In an article last week Toby Young talks of ‘bunkum’ coming from the arts sector about the failure to give the arts a proper place in our education system. He quotes the Department for Education’s statistics saying that there has been a one per cent rise in young people taking an arts GCSE subject over the past five years.
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