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A Perfect Storm

A Perfect Storm Picture

Local Government and Culture

The current relationship between culture and local governement is confused and confusing – there is no cultural system, and hence reliable evidence is difficult to come by. But that is no reason to ignore the problem of falling budgets and asset disposals.

In late 2006, John Holden, Head of Culture here at Demos published a thinkpiece warning that in some places in the UK, culture faces a crisis at Local Authority level.

The situation he outlined in A Perfect Storm  is one in which the  current relationship between culture and local governement is confused and confusing – there is no cultural system, and hence reliable evidence is difficult to come by. But that is no reason to ignore the problem of falling budgets and asset disposals.

Except for libraries and listed buildings, spending on cultural services is not a statutory requirement. The current dynamics of local authority funding are limiting the ability of councils to spend their resources outside those areas where they are obliged to spend. The result is likely to be that cultural infrastructure and cultural life will be hit, in turn affecting the achievement of council priorities and diminishing the quality of life of their citizens.

We invite people to add examples of this to the project blog below.  We hope to collect an inventory that will evidence the perfect storm that we predicted.  It's already happening - famously, Bury Council announced that it would sell the Lowry Painting in the museum's collection.  What other cases are there?