Why DCMS will not reform or abolish the Arts Council

It is a maintained paralysis that sustains the political system, which is why it cannot be exposed or disrupted.

Non-statements and sacred cows

In preparation for The Sunday Telegraph article (available here, behind a paywall), Dalya Alberge contacted the Art Council (ACE) and the ICA, London with the essential points of my pamphlet “Abolish the Arts Council”. These regarded political bias, overspend, apparent corruption and the climate of fear spread in the public-arts world by ACE. The ICA declined to comment. ACE issued this statement:

“The public want high-quality, world-leading art and we want to ensure that people across the country, wherever they live, have the opportunity to see and engage with brilliant work, from fantastic opera and ballet, to fascinating museum collections and world-leading theatre productions.”

It is more of a non-statement than a reply to the charges, many of which spring from ACE’s annual financial statements. ACE is the source of evidence against itself. ACE refuses to engage with the pamphlet’s objections and arguments.

The argument offered against the pamphlet’s case is that ACE does good work supporting worthwhile arts of great range, bringing them to people across the country. In a sense, that is true and was never disputed in the pamphlet. Yes, public-arts bodies can produce great work of value to us all, but does it have to come with ACE’s liberalist outlook? It was the culture of ACE and its values (not the majority of its clients) that were cited as problems.

In defences, we find a conflation between ACE (a bureaucratic QUANGO, charged with disbursing taxes to recipients) and producers and hosts of the arts. ACE has never “made” anything. It relies entirely on the talents of others and the goodwill felt by audiences towards those producers. ACE acts as if it were abolished then the arts would blink out of existence. The arts existed before, and will exist after, ACE.

This is a similar argument to that which arises when someone points out the flaws of the NHS. Someone suggests we could develop a system that would be more efficient and less political. This suggestion prompts the rejoinder, “So, you want people to die without healthcare, is that what you are saying?” Healthcare existed before, and will exist after, the NHS. Criticising the bureaucracy of a centralised system and deploring its failings – and being suspicious of the cult of veneration that has accrued around it – is not the same as criticising healthcare. It is possible to argue against the NHS whilst also being respectful and thankful towards specific NHS staff and hospitals.

Dismissing criticism of ACE as being philistine is the easiest (and laziest) argument to make. Let us hope that when people read the pamphlet written by two authors (David Lee and me) with lifetime careers devoted to researching, celebrating and promoting very varied art, that they will not mistake the authors for art-haters.

Neither the pamphlet nor my book Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism (which formed the basis for many of the pamphlet’s arguments) argues against the value of state funding for art. It says that there is a case for a reduced budget and other sources of funding providing support for commercially viable operations, such as the ACE-funded Serpentine Gallery, which is headed by a multi-billionaire chairman and had (in 2021) a £10million endowment.

Why DCMS will do nothing

The Department for Culture Media Sport and Digital (DCMS) and the new Secretary for Culture (Michelle Donelan MP) have received a copy of “Abolish the Arts Council”. With it was a letter where I offered to consult with the Secretary or DCMS staff on reform or abolition of ACE. I do not expect anything more than acknowledgement that “DCMS takes allocation of arts funding very seriously” or something similar. DCMS will do nothing for two reasons, which are briefly mentioned in the pamphlet. Here they are again.

Firstly, the culture of the civil service at DCMS (and all other ministries) is completely aligned with that of ACE. DCMS believes – as it has put on its own website – that jobs should be allocated according to demographics (not according to merit). It agrees with quotas regarding race, sex, sexual orientation and so forth. In terms of personnel and leftist identity-politics outlook, ACE and related bodies are indistinguishable from DCMS.

We should not expect the elite to impose even a symbolic punishment upon itself. One only needs to look at the inaction of the Charities Commission England (CCE) regarding prohibited political activity in the ICA, as documented in my Artivism. DCMS, CCE, ACE, the ICA and dozens of publicly-funded bodies (and related foundations and charities) operate as a network that imposes the shared values of the elite upon the arts.

Secondly, the Conservative Party is the whipping boy of the BBC and The Guardian. The left mass media damn the Conservatives as fascist adjacent, monsters of reactionary politics and heartless capitalists, while all the time getting almost the same policies as those of New Labour, which they support. Indeed, many of the policies are exactly the same. It is a sham system, which allows the appearance of a left-right divide, when in fact all the major parties and the establishment are captured by materialist managerialism.

Michelle Donelan and every member of the government are petrified of being called Nazis if they defund or abolish ACE. They fret about the potential headline in The Guardian – “Michelle Donelan, Culture Abolisher” – not realising that The Guardian and the BBC will never give them the approval for which they yearn. The pantomime must continue, as politicians worry about poll percentages and every day quota programming and political appointments suffocate what little free spirit and historical rigour remains in the public-arts system. It is a maintained paralysis that sustains the political system, which is why it cannot be exposed or disrupted.

ACE must be abolished, DCMS must be purged. Clear them out.

Purchase your copy of “Abolish the Arts Council” (not available online or digitally) here.