CURRENT CAMPAIGNS > CAARE for ARTS
We're going to have to remind people that they need the arts. It's a necessity – like the air they breathe and the water they drink.
- Simon Rattle
CAARE for ARTS is our campaign to promote the benefits of participation and appreciation of great art at all levels. A passion for classical music led our founder, Denis Vaughan, to a conducting career that took him around the world. We know from personal experience how art can transform a life and, by that power, change families, neighbourhoods, cities and ultimately a nation for the better.
Denis Vaughan conceived the National Lottery as a vehicle to bring vastly increased funding to sports and the arts, both of which are the first to suffer in budget cuts when centrally funded through the Treasury. Yet over time, that vision has been eroded. The principle of additionality – that Lottery funds would only be used to pay for projects that would otherwise not receive government money – is increasingly ignored. The new Lottery Bill would give the government even more power to draw on Lottery funds for projects that would traditionally have been funded from direct taxation, and which have little or nothing to do with art or sport. Meanwhile huge sums remain in reserve and unspent, because it serves the Treasury's own interest.
While the government has spoken often of its commitment to art as a force in community regeneration and social transformation, they are all too often unwilling to pay the price of their rhetoric. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has had its budget frozen until 2008, which in real terms means a cut in funding of £114.9m over 2 years!
CAARE for ARTS opposes the government freeze on DCMS funds and the new Lottery Bill. We want to see art and sport funded through an independent lottery that keeps its spending reserves as low as possible and has a firm-set guarantee that its monies are to be distributed on the principle of additionality.
CAARE for ARTS – Objectives:
• Campaign vigorously for increased funding for all the arts, both from Government and the Lottery.
• Raise public and media awareness of the important issues relating to art.
• Promote the ability of the arts to aid mental, emotional and physical development.
• Provide schools, local communities and other groups with assistance in the creation of schemes promoting the arts and providing artistic activities.
• Monitor Government promises relating to the arts and the use of Lottery funds.
If wish to offer support or assistance to CAARE for SPORT, or would like to see CAARE fighting your corner, then please do not hesitate to contact us.