Classical
Music
The
Magazine of the Classical Music Profession
27th
October 2007
Council makes case for the arts and sport
Sue
Pascoe
The
Council for the Advancement for the Arts, Recreation and Education (CAARE) has
made what it calls a clarion call on government to improve provision of sport
and arts. It launched a report, Funding
Physical Activity and the Arts, at the House of Lords on 18th
October, “outlining the best path for the government to achieve an immediate
improvement in its fight to stimulate activity in the cultural and sporting
fields”.
The
68-page report makes the case for the sector as a treatment for mental health
and well-being, calls for greater investment and analyses the levels of arts
and sports funding during Gordon Brown’s time as Chancellor. It states: “while
Labour’s health budget rose to 19% of total public spending, and children,
schools and families to 12.27%, culture, media and sport remained a risible
0.28%, the lowest in Europe.
The
government is praised for some initiatives, but the report warns: “Programmes
must be sustained. Too many promising arts and physical activity initiatives in
the past decade have proven to be no more than a flash in the pan. What we need
is a coordinated, committed and long0term response to a critical assessment of
existing provision. CAARE (www.caare.co.uk)
was founded by Australian conductor Denis Vaughan, who was an ardent campaigner
for the establishment of a National Lottery. The report calls for the lottery
to be linked “to the grassroots purposes for which it was created, by making
its distribution an independent charitable foundation. [This] would allow
Camelot to promote prime-time publicity to stimulate those activities which
would reduce obesity, ill health, crime, alcohol abuse and absenteeism.”
In a
foreword, Professor Mike Collins concludes: “I ask Gordon Brown and his
colleagues to consider CAARE’s arguments carefully, and go a step further
beyond the current, sincere rhetoric.”