Culture and creativity in 2007

cover image
Artist: Alistair Grant
2-4 Cockspur Street Title: Interior of Theatre
Date: 1953
London SW1Y 5DH © Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO,
www.culture.gov.uk 2007, UK Government Art Collection.
 Foreword from The Prime Minister 3

Introduction Culture and creativity – ten years on 4

Government investment in culture and the arts 5
What people expect… 6
And what we can do for them… 6
Theatre Review 7

Chapter 1 Home thoughts... 8

Heritage Open Days 9
Free entry to museums 10
Excellence is popular 11
Digital Screen Network 11
Birmingham Jewellery Quarter 12

Chapter 2 ...from abroad 14

International Dunhuang Project 16

Chapter 3 Culture and the economy 18

UK Film Council Premiere Fund 20

Chapter 4 Learning to succeed 22

Artsmark 23
Creative Partnerships 24
Developing an interest in film 24
Enhancing young people’s literacy skills –
the Summer Reading Challenge 24
Cultural Leadership Programme 27

Chapter 5 Challenges and opportunities ahead 28

Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008 30
Our aim is to improve the
quality of life for all through
cultural and sporting activities,
support the pursuit of excellence,
and champion the tourism,
creative and leisure industries. 1
 The last 10 years has seen a quiet revolution in the fortunes of the cultural
sector in this country.

We have recognised the importance of public subsidy for the arts – funding has
increased to £400 million per year. Free admission to our museums and galleries
has seen nearly 30 million more visits to our world renowned collections.
Behind these numbers a distinctively British approach to culture is at work.

We have encouraged the cultural sector to go out into the marketplace, to seek
private funding, to enter into partnerships across sectors, to test its work at the
box office. Across all the many disciplines the response has been vigorous,
enthusiastic and creative. Our arts leaders are world-class entrepreneurs.

The result is a vibrant mixed economy in culture, in a form more developed

in this country than any other in the world. It has allowed us to achieve
something vital – excellence with a very deep and wide reach. The fact of
subsidy allows artistic experiment. The commercial testing means that
groundbreaking work seeks out as wide an audience as possible.

In the process, we have developed a creative industries sector that is growing

faster than the economy as a whole. Our cities have been regenerated around
new industries and new galleries.

We have become the world’s creative hub. We have the most innovative
designers and architects, the most popular museums and galleries, the biggest
art market, the greatest theatres. Millions of people visit Britain every year

For decades, our great public buildings, museums and galleries, concert halls
and studios attracted a homogenous audience. Buildings were in a poor state
of repair. The contents were rarely renewed or updated. The talent that has
always existed in this country was not adequately encouraged.

I am proud to say that none of these things are any longer true. There is always
more that can be done. But ten years is an appropriate moment to reflect on
the very substantial progress we have made so far.

The Sultan’s Elephant, The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP

London, 4-7 May 2006.
2 Photo: Sophie Laslett Prime Minister 3
 This report is a snapshot of the cultural life of the nation.
It uses a handful of examples and case studies to
illustrate the advances that have been made in the last
few years. For individuals, for communities and for the
economy, the importance of culture and creativity has
never been greater.
More people than at any other time enjoy a leisure time
enriched by world class arts, heritage and media. They are
more likely than ever before to live in a community
regenerated by the arrival of new places to learn and
enjoy themselves. And they are more likely than ever to
work in the creative economy.
This has been achieved by individuals and organisations
who dedicate themselves to providing the best of culture
and creativity for the most. But it could not have
happened without the extra investment from the
National Lottery and the Government, and the arms
length framework within which the culture sector
operates. It is because of this that we have the strong,
independent, entrepreneurial organisations that produce
world class cultural and creative output.
Government spending on the arts has risen by 73 percent in
real terms over the last 10 years to more than £400 million
per year. Over the same period, our investment in
sponsored museums has grown by 28 percent in real terms
to £336 million in 2008.
Introduction
Culture and creativity –
ten years on De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
Government investment in culture
and the arts
Funding to Arts Council England has increased by
73 percent in real terms over the last 10 years, from
£187 million in 1997-8 to £412 million in 2006-7.
Within this, theatre funding has more than doubled,
rising from £47.9 million in 1996-97 to an estimated
97.5 million in 2006-7. Across the same period, Arts
Council England has also invested £2 billion of Lottery
funds into the arts. Because of this, there are over 100
new arts buildings (such as the Chinese Arts Centre in
Manchester) and almost 500 arts buildings have been
refurbished (such as the Brighton Dome). Around 300
touring projects are supported each year and more than
a million young people have benefited from the Youth
Music programme.
The arts are using the increased core public subsidy to
generate more income themselves. The latest figures
show the total amount of private support for the arts
has grown from £448 million in 2002-3 to £530 million
in 2005-6 - an annual growth of 2.2 percent above
inflation - made up of:
• Individual giving - £262 million
• Business investment - £150 million
• Trusts and foundations - £113 million.
DCMS funding for sponsored museums will increase to
£336 million by 2008, a real terms increase of 28 percent
since 1997. A key outcome of this investment is free
entry to national museums which has led to a 40 percent
increase in visits. National museums are helping
themselves too – there has been a significant increase in
self-generated income since 1997.
Funding for ‘non-national’ museums, through the
Renaissance in the Regions programme, will increase by
40 percent next year to £45 million. In all £147 million
(2002-08) has been allocated by DCMS to England’s
5
 regional museums between 2002-2008 to modernise,
raise standards, broaden audience access and provide a
comprehensive service to schools. Of this some
£31 million will have been invested in collections care
and management by 2008.
This has resulted in more than 900,000 visits by new
users from communities that would not traditionally
attend a museum.
The importance of culture and creativity in people’s lives,
and its broader impact on the commercial and social life
of the nation, can only grow. The investment we have put
in so far, feeding the energy and imagination of the
sector itself, is only a beginning.
What people expect…
Over the past 10 years, the expectations we have of the
cultural sector have changed along with everything else.
Strategic public investment in culture has meant that our
sectors have become more accessible. Free access to
national museums, for example, has led to an 87 percent
increase in visit numbers to the previously charging
museums.
Over the coming years, people will rightly have ever-
higher expectations of the cultural and creative sectors.
As new audiences continue to be built for every form of
culture, so the expectation that high quality, challenging
work will be available for all will rise too. To this extent,
the cultural world has become a victim of its own
success. The more it widens access to world class work,
the more expectations continue to rise. So in the future,
parents will not only hope, but expect, that their children
will be able to take their creativity as far as their talent
will take them.
6 Introduction
And what we can do for them…
These expectations merit a world-class response.
Fortunately many of the building blocks for this are
already in place, and have been so for centuries. Seven of
the ten most popular tourist attractions in the UK are
Government-sponsored museums and galleries, for
example. There are 17 World Heritage Sites in England,
including Blenheim Palace, Durham Cathedral and
Stonehenge, while organisations such as the British
Museum, the British Library, the Tate and the National
Gallery are world leaders in their fields.
More people than ever before are able to enjoy this
wealth of cultural heritage. Almost 70 percent of people
visit historic sites at least once a year. In 2004-5, over
one million school children were included in museum
activities supported by Renaissance Hub museums, of
whom 845,000 visited with their schools. In 2005-6, the
400 historic sites in the guardianship of English Heritage
hosted over 485,000 educational visits.
The arts promote a positive, international image of Britain
today. Public investment coupled with sound business
skills has allowed our brightest stars such as Akram Khan
and Nicholas Hytner to shine internationally and to
contribute to the creative economy. Organisations such
as the National Theatre contribute and challenge not only
in the context of their specific art form, but in a broader
public sphere. We have seen in areas such as Newcastle-
Gateshead, Salford Quays and Bristol Harbourside how
the power of the arts can transform places and people.
Over 90 percent of the Arts Council’s regularly funded
organisations run education programmes and over
330,000 young people have been involved in the Creative
Partnerships scheme, giving them the chance to work
with artists and other creative professionals.
Creativity is also good for business and employment.
So we support our creative industries, all of which
develop from individual creative skills, and also our leisure
industries, which make the most of our cultural provision
and deliver economic as well as social outcomes.
The creative industries now account for almost 8 percent
of UK Gross Value Added, employing almost two million
people and growing at a rate of 5 percent per annum
compared to 3 percent for the economy as a whole.
Making the best of the creative economy will be vital for
our future economic well-being, and not merely a
desirable economic spin-off from our cultural aspirations.
So our ambition for 2012 and beyond is clear: to take this
still further, by fostering world-class creativity of every
kind, creating a chance for everyone to enjoy the fruits of
that creativity, regardless of their background or where
they come from.
In short, we want to maintain and to build on the success
of a sector that has shown it delivers.
Theatre Review
In 2001 it was announced that over 190 theatres across
England would receive an extra £25 million in public
funds. This represented a 72 percent increase in the
budget for theatre (excluding the National Theatre and
the Royal Shakespeare Company). It was the largest
increase ever in public funding for theatre and it marked
a turning point in the fortunes of the sector. Research
on seven of the biggest regional producing theatres
found an outstanding increase in audience numbers and
education activities. It found that, comparing 2000 with
2005:
Over 36,000 young people were involved in education
programmes run by theatres in 2005: an increase of
almost 60 percent.
Nearly three million people attended performances in
2005-06: an increase of almost 40 percent.
85 percent more new plays were produced in English
theatres.
Nearly 6,000 performances were given at home and
on tour.
The success of the subsidised sector supports the
success of the commercial creative industries. Director
Stephen Frears has said: “Many of us currently earning
money for British cinema have spent our lives working
within some form of the subsidised arts, and have
benefited from the wise decision of the government to
support the arts properly.”
Oscar-winner Dame Judi Dench has said that: “The health
of our film industry depends on the health of our theatre.”
7
 People know that culture matters. Research tells us this,
and also confirms that the great majority (four out of five
people surveyed) go further and positively support the
use of public funding for cultural activity.
A DCMS survey “Taking Part” in July 2006 found that
during the last 12 months:
69 percent attended at least one type of historic
environment site
66 percent attended at least one type of arts event
67 percent participated in at least one type of arts activity
48 percent attended a library at least once
42 percent attended a museum / gallery at least once
This is easy to understand if you consider the sheer range
of things on offer these days, and the relative ease with
which they can be appreciated. The popularity of events
such as Heritage Open Days, visits to our now free
national museums, and schemes promoting cheap theatre
tickets (such as the National Theatre’s Travelex £10 ticket
season) are fantastically popular. They demonstrate that
people will flood into ‘serious’ cultural events when these
are readily available. Better still, there is evidence that
people value such diversity even if they don’t use the
particular facilities themselves.
Heritage Open Days
Heritage Open Days is an annual event celebrating
England’s architecture and culture. It is funded by
English Heritage and managed by the Civic Trust.
Thousands of buildings which are usually closed to the
public or charge an entrance fee are open free. There are
also events, such as guided walks, tours, craft
demonstrations, concerts and family activities that bring
history and culture to life. Nearly a million people took
part in Heritage Open Days in 2006.
The cultural sector plays a broad role in society. It is both
valued and trusted by the public. For example, research
into the use of the Internet shows that the websites of
museums, libraries and archives achieve outstanding
levels of trust, with nine out of ten people saying that
they trusted them a great deal or a fair amount. Research
by MORI found that the relationship with trust also
worked the other way – that engagement in cultural
pursuits such as theatre-going was a significant factor in
whether people were more likely to be trusting than
those who did not.

But this has not always been so, of course. It’s not so long
ago that it would have been inconceivable that the public
could have had free guided tours to hundreds of our
finest – and sometimes most secret – public and historic
buildings. But this year over a million people will do just
that and take advantage of Heritage Open Days up and
down the country.

And our world-renowned national museums and galleries

are now free every day of the year. Ten years ago a family
visit to the Science Museum, for example, would have set
Chapter 1 you back more than £30, and that was before a visit to

Home
the café and gift shop.

thoughts...
Heritage Open Days 2005 – School children
working on a project outside Shah Jehan Mosque in
Woking. Built in 1889, this was the first purpose-built
mosque in Britain. Photo courtesy of Tina Cockett. 9
 Free entry to museums
A central part of the Government’s policy for museums
has been to enable free access to its sponsored museums.
In the five years since the introduction of this policy in
December 2001, around 34 million additional visits have
been made to all DCMS sponsored museums, over 29
million of which were to former charging museums.
• Visits to former charging museums increased by
87 percent between December 2001 and
December 2006.
• During this period, the number of visits to the V&A
more than doubled from 970,000 to over 2.3 million.
• Visits to National Museums Liverpool saw a similar
increase from 700,000 to 1.7 million.
The number of visits from people from lower socio-
economic groups rose from 5.4 million in 2002-03 to
6.5 million in 2004-05 – an increase from 16 percent to
18 percent of total visits. The growth in visitor numbers
has been achieved at an estimated cost to the
exchequer of £40 million extra per year.
Admission for under 16s has been free since April 1999.
Since then an extra 16 million children have visited
DCMS sponsored museums. Eight million children visited
these museums in 2005-06 alone, an increase of
70 percent since 1998-99.
Adrian Lester in Henry V
Photo credit: Ivan Kyncl
10 Chapter 1 www.stagework.org.uk
Cultural events can unite the entire country in celebration
in a way that few other things can. Everyone is used to
big sporting events, and the return of triumphant teams,
drawing big crowds on to the streets. But what is
sometimes forgotten is that the arts can be just as
potent.
The police estimate that 1 million people saw “The
Sultan’s Elephant,” a piece of free street theatre funded
largely by the Arts Council across a single weekend in
London in May 2006. The BBC Proms offers another
example. Until a few years ago, they provided a spectacle
that only two or three thousand could enjoy live. For
everyone else, the Last Night experience came via the TV
and radio. But for the last few years the experience has
been expanded into something quite different, with tens
of thousands gathering in different cities for simultaneous
broadcasts and their own live music experience.
A ‘different’ experience but one that completely respects
tradition and taps into the public’s genuine – and
increasing – appetite for serious and traditional culture.
And a recent MORI poll found that 63 percent of people
stated that local art facilities and events create a sense of
pride for local people either by a fair amount or by a
great deal.
Excellence is popular
Government cultural policy would make no sense if it
did not lead to first-class work being produced. Public
subsidy is no guarantee of excellence, of course, but it
can lead to outstanding work that, in all probability,
would not have been produced without it:
• “The History Boys” – this National Theatre
production won six Tony awards last year, equalling
the record of “Death of a Salesman” in 1949.
• Royal Shakespeare Company – over 550,000 people
saw its work in Stratford-upon-Avon and London in
2004-5.
• The Sultan’s Elephant – an estimated 1 million
people watched world-class street theatre in London.
• The British Art Show – 100,000 people attended in
2005 to see works from the Arts Council's collection
in venues across the country from Baltic in Gateshead
to Arnolfini in Bristol.
• Quick Reads – launched by the Prime Minister last
March, this initiative brings imaginative writing by a
host of leading authors to the 12 million adults in this
country with limited reading.
• Liverpool Biennale 2004 – welcomed 350,000
visitors, 41 percent from outside the region, and
injected £8 million into the local economy.
• Royal Opera House – over 650,000 people attended
in 2004-5, while 33,000 more watched live relays
across the country.
Digital Screen Network
The Digital Screen Network is installing state of the art
digital cinema equipment in more than 200 cinemas up
and down the UK, from Inverness to St Ives and
Llandudno to Aldeburgh. In return for the equipment all
the participating cinemas are contracted to screen a
wider range of films, with an emphasis on British,
classics and world cinema.
One example of a cinema which has benefited is the
Duke’s Cinema Lancaster. The cinema shares its space
with a live theatre operation and screens films twice a
day. It has developed its own loyal following for its
specialised strand of repertory style programming. The
installation of digital cinema equipment has meant that
the cinema has been able to access high profile films
earlier in their theatrical run but, importantly, not at the
expense of having to alter its overall programming
strategy and connection with the local community.
The idea of culture as an engine for regeneration has
become the norm. Examples such as those in Salford
Quays, Newcastle-Gateshead, Bristol Harbourside,
Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and the Ancoats area of
Manchester show how people want to live and work in
areas that have a thriving cultural life, and such
regeneration can in turn attract employers into the area.
For example, research into the economic impact of the
development of Salford Quays estimated that 11,000 new
jobs were created in the local community, 6,500 of them
attributable to The Lowry. Similarly, Tate Modern had an
estimated economic benefit of £100 million in its first year,
creating 3,000 new jobs in Southwark alone and a
23 percent increase in local hotels and catering businesses.
11
 Birmingham Jewellery Quarter
The regeneration of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter
came about by a combination of public and private
investment. The project had a total scheme value of just
over £1 million, of which a fifth came from the
Conservation Area Partnership, and the rest from the
private sector. The area remains a thriving centre for the
jewellery industry with 6,000 employed by over 1,500
separate companies, but considerable added value has
come about through its repositioning as an important
tourist destination, building on its importance as a key
part of the Black Country’s cultural heritage. Museums,
organised tours and clever marketing have drawn in
tourist visitors from outside which has produced new
jobs and investment. The DCMS has also ‘listed’ more
than a hundred buildings in the Quarter, helping to
ensure that the historic nature of the area is preserved.
Another way in which the sector is distinctive is the
opportunities it provides for volunteering, from organising
a children’s music group to working in a museum or
helping to run a heritage or arts amenity society. There
are an estimated 400,000 volunteers in the heritage
sector and 16,000 volunteers involved in the theatre. The
large number of people involved in voluntary work in the
cultural sectors reflects the value that people place on
these activities, and also the enormous value the sectors
place on the support of those who volunteer their
services, skills and time unpaid.
One of the biggest – and most important – achievements
in cultural life over the last 10 years has been the work to
promote taking part in the arts and culture by those who,
in the past, have seen it as ‘not for us’. Between 2002-05,
the number of visits by people from socio-economic
groups C2, D and E visiting DCMS sponsored museums
increased by 21 percent. The Renaissance in the Regions
programme has helped attract almost three-quarters of a
million new visitors from communities that would not
traditionally attend a museum.
12 Chapter 1
The sense of exclusion discussed here comes in many
forms, of course. And so do the solutions. The UK Film
Council has helped improve access to the cinema for
people with hearing or visual impairments through
awards providing soft-subtitling and audio-description
facilities to 78 cinemas. It has also helped those living in
rural and remote areas through providing funding to
support over 200 local Film Societies. And we have
invested in organisations developing audio-description
and captioning services in theatres.
So we are proud that an increasing proportion of cultural
funding is directed towards groups with lower
participation and attendance rates. One in seven of the
Arts Council’s regularly funded organisations will
represent black and minority ethnic groups by 2008. The
theatre sector, with support from the Arts Council’s Black
Regional Initiative in Theatre (BRIT) programme, has been
diversifying its programming and adopting new marketing
strategies to attract more audiences and participants
from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Particular events, such as Manchester Mardi Gras or the
Notting Hill Carnival, have become established parts of
the arts calendar, encouraging whole communities and
visitors to take pride and participate. By 2007-08, Arts
Council funding for regularly funded Carnival clients will
increase to £1.2 million, spread across 17 organisations.
The sheer ‘reach’ of the cultural sector into almost every
part of the population through some or other of its
activities, makes it unusual compared to other Government
funded services. The Arts Council knows this and has worked
through the Youth Justice Board to develop an arts
enrichment programme for 3,500 young people in pupil
referral units and young offender institutions. This has
helped the young people develop new skills and improved
their behaviour and ability to learn.
Children learning through
interactive fibre-optic exhibit inside
the Bristol science centre
Tom Allcott, one of the few remaining
old-time jobbing jewellers, at work in the
Birmingham Jewellery Quarter
Notting Hill Carnival ©Tim Allen/Axiom 13
 Our culture makes this country an attractive destination
for tourists and business visitors alike. It also promotes a
positive image of Britain more widely, both within this
country and throughout the world. This is because our
cultural attractions include many of the things for which
this country is best known. So it’s no surprise that the
number of visits from abroad to national museums has
risen by 80 percent since 1998-9, to almost 11 million
from overseas in 2005-6.
The derelict power station on London’s Bankside that Tate
Modern took over has become the world’s most visited
museum of modern art. And it is free to all these visitors
thanks to Government investment. Because of this, Tate
Modern has become an incredible international symbol of
the cultured society that the UK has become.
Our built and historic environment is another major
factor in attracting tourists from both home and
emerging markets abroad thanks in part to our 27 World
Heritage Sites, from prehistoric monuments such as
Stonehenge to industrial and commercial cities such as
Liverpool, and natural features like the historic coast of
West Dorset.
Britain is also more adept at promoting itself abroad
these days. Increasing numbers of British arts
organisations and British artists tour or work
internationally. Three million foreign visitors attend shows
at London theatres each year – with 28 percent of
London theatre visitors from overseas.
Our cultural institutions include world leaders in their
respective fields and are internationally recognised for
their success and expertise. So it is no surprise that our
opera companies and orchestras attract the best soloists
and conductors in the world. The recent appointments of
Valery Gergiev to the London Symphony Orchestra, Esa-
Pekka Salonen to the Philharmonia Orchestra and
Chapter 2 Vladimir Jurowski to the London Philharmonic
demonstrates London’s position as the world’s centre of
...from abroad
excellence for classical music.
UK national museums have won the European Museum
of the Year award three times in the past eight years
(National Museums Liverpool, 1998; National Railway
Museum, 2001; V&A, 2003) while the Churchill Museum
(part of the Imperial War Museum) won the Council of
Europe Award in 2006.
Worldwide, London is second only to New York in terms
of attendance levels at major international exhibitions.
Britain’s cultural achievements are regularly showcased
abroad through touring exhibitions, such as the V&A’s
Vivienne Westwood exhibition that visited China in 2005.
The international reputation of the UK’s national
museums is such that they are able to attract significant
loans from other countries. For example the British
Museum is currently preparing for a major exhibition on
China’s First Emperor (Qin Shihuangdi) and his legacy,
including some of the famous “Terracotta Army”.
For many of our cultural institutions, a key use of public
funding is to preserve, improve and promote the assets
they hold on behalf of the nation. But in so doing, they
are also helping to promote the country’s image abroad
and make this a place that people want to visit. The
widespread availability of the Internet is an increasingly
important tool to reach out to international audiences
and share knowledge of our culture. For example, during
the first week that the British Library made them
available online, the digital Alice in Wonderland
manuscript and Mozart’s Catalogue of all his works each
attracted some 60,000 individual visitors from over
100 countries.
One of Carsten Holler’s slides from the
piece Test Site installed in the Turbine Hall
Tate Modern London England
© David Pearson /Alamy 15
 The global impact of culture can also be a means to
promote international co-operation and diplomacy. The
British Museum’s exhibition in Tehran, for example,
provided an opportunity for the Foreign Secretary to visit
Iran at a time when diplomatic links were more difficult.
Initiatives such as the Arts Council’s international
fellowship programme and its Artists Links Programme
with the British Council in China have created
opportunities for over 200 individual artists to take part
in international exchanges. The British Museum and V&A
have also announced an unprecedented programme of
collaboration with China, including exhibitions and loans
on world cultures not currently represented in museums
there, curatorial exchanges, skills sharing and joint projects.
Increasingly, too, there is awareness that culture can build
strong and sustainable civil societies in developing
countries. This is part of working towards a stronger and
safer international system, for example, the British
Museum’s work in Kenya and Ethiopia, which has used
exhibitions to promote values of global citizenship.
16 Chapter 2
International Dunhuang Project
The British Library has for 12 years been the main driver
behind the programme to catalogue and digitise
thousands of items from the Dunhuang Caves on the
Silk Road, in collaboration with the Chinese Government
and the National Library of China. The project reunites
1000-year-old heritage materials held in China with
those taken overseas in the early 20th century to Japan,
Germany, Russia and the UK. International Dunhuang
Project (IDP) is the largest and most successful project
of its kind, containing information on more than
500,000 paintings, artefacts, textiles and manuscripts.
The website receives more than 50,000 hits a day – over
18 million in 2005 alone. It has been widely praised as
an ‘outstanding contribution to scholarship’ and an
‘essentially scholarly resource’. IDP has been very
successful in attracting substantial funding from
foundations and the private sector, enabling the creation
of local digitisation and study centres in Beijing,
St Petersburg, Kyoto and Berlin.
Stencil for a five-figure Buddha group,
painting on paper. From Cave 17, Mogao,
near Dunhuang, Gansu province, China.
Five Dynasties or early Northern Song,
mid-10th century AD
© The Trustees of the British Museum
17
 The creative industries embrace many sectors. They range
from more ‘traditional’ areas of arts and culture such as
the performing arts, the art and antiques market and
crafts, through to sectors such as music, film, architecture,
publishing, design, advertising and designer fashion, and
these days to comparatively new industry sectors such as
video games and computer software.
The Government has made it a priority that all should
thrive.
As a result, they are an increasingly important and
dynamic sector of the UK economy, in 2004 collectively
accounting for almost 8 percent of UK Gross Value Added,
compared to 4 percent in 1998. And growing by an
average of 5 percent per year between 1997 and 2004,
compared to an average of 3 percent for the economy as
a whole over the same period. The creative industry
sectors employs 1.8 million people in the UK, with
employment in some sectors such as computer games
and electronic publishing growing by as much as
6 percent per annum.
Exports contributed £13 billion to the balance of trade in
2004, equivalent to 4.3 percent of all goods and services
exported. The external trade benefit to the UK economy
of UK national museums, for example, is at least £320
million per year, while overseas investment in UK films
reached £569.6 million in 2006 (the second highest level
ever recorded).
For particular commercial sectors our worldwide
reputation for excellence goes hand in hand with
economic success.
In music for example, the industry is a significant
contributor to the UK economy, contributing some £6
billion annually and employing some 130,000 people. In
2006, a combination of both new and established artists
Chapter 3 helped UK acts claim their largest share of album best-
sellers since 1997.
Culture and the economy
The economic contribution of London’s West End theatres
is estimated to be around £1 billion per year through
direct and indirect generation of income. In 2004, West
End ticket sales were estimated to generate £450 million
per year while the average additional visitor spend of
audience members was £54.
In other areas, we have acted to ensure that both the
cultural and economic vitality of the sector is maintained.
In January 2007 a new cultural test for British Film came
into force, designed to encourage the production of
culturally British films. In line with the European Union’s
State Aid requirements, this test will be the first gateway
to the new tax film reliefs announced in the 2006 Budget.
Under the new relief, British films which pass the cultural
test, spend more that 25 percent of their expenditure in
the UK, and are destined for theatrical release, will be
eligible to claim relief worth up to 16 percent of their
budget for larger films and 20 percent for smaller films.
HM Treasury estimates the new tax relief will be worth as
much as £120 million per year to the film industry.
Graphic illustration of sound levels
Victoria and Albert museum
fashion show. ©Tim Allen/Axiom
19
 UK Film Council Premiere Fund

The UKFC Premiere Fund supports the development of

projects through to marketing and distribution, in the
production of feature films that can attract audiences
the world over. The annual budget for the Premiere Fund
is £8 million. Up until the end of 2006, the Fund had
invested in 39 feature films at a value of £48.7 million.
Return on investment in terms of recoupment back to
the UK Film Council is running at over 50 percent
(£24.4 million). The films have been seen by over
13.6 million people in the UK; a box office take of
£60.4 million in the UK and world-wide $348 million.

A key feature of the last 10 years is the extent to which

the cultural sector has embraced developments in
technology and new business models to enhance the
offer it makes to consumers. In some cases these ventures
have opened up new possibilities for commercial
exploitation.

The British Library was among the first to embrace the

power of the Internet by putting the Magna Carta online
a decade ago. Its award-winning Turning the Pages™
system was recently used to bring a dozen of the Library’s
most iconic world treasures to the web. It has also
integrated 14 library cataloguing systems into a single
Integrated Library System covering 29 million
bibliographic records. A partnership with Microsoft has
enabled the BL to develop Turning the Pages yet further,
providing unprecedented access to the Leonardo da Vinci
notebooks, Codex Arundel and Codex Leicester.

Mrs Henderson Presents film image

courtesy of Pathé Distribution

20 Chapter 3 Magna Carta © The British Library 21

 Culture, technology and the creative industries come
together in any number of different ways. One of the
most powerful is the way in which our living cultural
heritage can be opened up as an aid to learning.
At a local level, for example, Internet access is now
available free for everyone through public libraries. This
happened because of the DCMS-funded People’s
Network. Between 2000 and 2003, the People’s Network
project delivered Internet connection, most of it
broadband, to all 4,200 public libraries in the UK. And
£120 million of National Lottery funding provided over
24,000 additional terminals, training for library staff, and
funding for the digitisation of learning materials.
This is a fantastic achievement which has allowed
millions of people to have access to the World Wide Web,
probably the greatest learning tool since the invention of
the printing press. And it has not simply succeeded in the
huge task of extending free Internet access across the
country. It has also proved to be a catalyst for
modernising and revitalising the library service; it has
substantially increased and broadened the sector's visitor
base, drawing in groups who had traditionally stayed
away from libraries; and also helped to deliver access to
the increasing range of public information and services
available online.
Museums too are increasingly making their collections
available online. Web visits to national museums have
doubled in the last two years, increasing from 40 million
in 2003-04 to over 80 million in 2005-06. Tate Online,
developed in partnership with BT, is the UK’s number one
visual art website, as measured by independent surveys.
English Heritage has also played a key role by transforming
online access to the National Monuments Record, with
over a million items on the web. This incorporates the
world’s largest freely available online image library, and
Chapter 4 receives nearly one million visitors per year.
Learning to succeed
We are all familiar with the impact that the Internet has
had on customer service. Arts organisations across the
country have revolutionised their relationship with their
customers by introducing Internet booking systems and
customer databases.
But new technology has also enabled other innovative
ways of increasing access to the arts. For example, the
Sound Exchange website allows people to create their own
music from thousands of free downloadable samples
specially recorded by Philharmonia Orchestra players.
Instruments range from piccolo to double bass, with single
notes, phrases and whole orchestra samples available.
Arts education can develop creativity and thinking skills,
the ability to communicate and self-confidence.
A literature review on the benefits of arts and sports
cited various studies that had found a link between
participation in music and visual arts, and being above
average in maths, reading and behaviour.
Artsmark
Artsmark is a national validation scheme designed to
reward schools that show a commitment to music,
dance, drama, and arts & design. Thirty percent of
secondary schools in England have received an Artsmark
award; 3,000 schools have received an award to date
since the scheme launched in 2001. The scheme aims to
encourage schools to increase the range of arts provided
to children and raise the profile of arts provision with
staff, parents, pupils and the local community.
The Edge, Creative Partnerships project
23
 Research tells us that 16-year-olds reading and writing for
pleasure – or taking part in music – had better earnings
potential, educational attainment and civic engagement
by the time they had reached 29. A study in Chicago of
25,000 students found that students with high levels of
arts participation outperformed ‘arts poor’ students by
almost every measure, even when taking socio-economic
status into account. Arts participation made a more
significant impact on students from low income
backgrounds than for high income students.
In the past five years there has been an increase of around
60 percent in the number of attendances by children
accessing DCMS sponsored museums through on- and
off-site organised educational visits, with a total of nearly
3 million visits in all. We have worked to help museums
place education at the core of their work, developing links
between their exhibitions and the National Curriculum, and
working with schools across the country.
Creative Partnerships
Creative Partnerships allows children and young people
in deprived urban and rural areas the opportunity to
work with artists and other creative professionals.
Thirty-six partnerships are operating in some of the
most deprived wards in the country and to date the
programme has worked with 330,000 students, 2,700
schools, 65,000 teachers, 4,800 cultural and creative
organisations, 42,000 parents and delivered 11,000
INSET sessions for teachers. Evaluation reports have
provided real evidence of the programme’s effectiveness.
Ofsted highlighted that pupils involved in CPs showed
good evidence of creative attributes developed through
initiatives that ‘developed improvisation, risk-taking and
resilience’. An independent survey of Head Teachers
involved in the programme found that over 90 percent
thought that it had improved pupils’ confidence and
communication skills, while over 75 percent thought
that it had directly led to improvements in attainment.
24 Chapter 4
Developing an interest in film
Each year, the National Schools Film Week provides
school children with the opportunity to attend local
cinemas and participate in linked educational activities
to develop media literacy through film. In 2005, over
213,000 children attended 1,226 screenings (28 percent
of which were specialist titles). Screenonline, set up
through the bfi, allows schools and other institutions
online access to over 300 hours of film footage.
Enhancing young people’s literacy
skills - the Summer Reading Challenge
Public libraries fulfil an important role in the education
and development of children and young people,
particularly in ensuring that they gain the basic skills
necessary for a fulfilling and productive life in
adulthood. The Summer Reading Challenge is the largest
national reading promotion for young people (aged 4-
11), with nearly 700,000 young people taking part each
year. Every year the challenge is around a different
theme, and children collect stickers as they borrow and
read books, getting a certificate at the end of the
summer to record their achievement, and a medal if
they have completed the Challenge. The programme
encourages young people to improve their reading skills,
as well as developing their social skills through talking
about books. The Challenge is widely promoted by
schools who recognise the achievement gained by the
young people, and the role that the partnership between
libraries and schools can play in increasing young
people's fundamental literacy skills.
Story-telling,
Peckham Library 25
 Libraries, museums and heritage organisations provide
important research tools for university academics, and are
an important element in continuing professional
development for teachers.
National museums have established links with 244 UK
universities, 52 Further Education colleges, and over 80
overseas universities. For example, the V&A runs two
postgraduate programmes in partnership with the Royal
College of Art with around 60 students based in the
museum. The Natural History Museum offers a
comprehensive postgraduate learning scheme which
includes an MSc and MRes, jointly run with Imperial
College London.
English Heritage is a highly respected research partner.
Examples of recent work include Chester Roman
Amphitheatre, which has showcased a large scale
excavation to the public whilst at the same time acting as
a training programme for archaeology undergraduates
from Liverpool University and Chester College. Their
research subjects cover a wide ranging brief from
prehistoric rock art in Northumberland to training local
volunteers to record engravings.
The success of our sectors is underpinned by our
continued investment in people. Individual practitioners
are constantly striving to push the boundaries of their
respective professions. Government support for emerging
talent can play a crucial role. For example many artists
funded by the Arts Council have become international
leaders in their fields. Rachel Whiteread in the visual arts,
and Andrea Levy in literature provide excellent examples.
At the same time museums have developed exchange
programmes, secondments and project-related work.
English Heritage, too, provides funding for training in
professional skills courses in the heritage sector, and
provides professional internships, bursaries and
apprenticeships. This is part of a broader thrust from the
heritage sector, to address the important issue of training
26 Chapter 4
and skills needed to maintain our heritage in a fit state
for forthcoming generations to enjoy. The Heritage
Lottery Fund is providing almost £7 million in funding
towards work-based bursary training schemes. As part of
this initiative, 10 bursaries have been awarded, including a
Traditional Building Skills Bursary Scheme for England and
Wales and an Institute of Field Archaeologists’ training
bursary offering placements across the UK.
Cultural Leadership Programme
The £12 million Cultural Leadership Programme, which
was launched in June 2006, has been developed to
strengthen the leadership of the cultural sector. It will
encourage a greater diversity of leaders and leadership
styles. It will tackle governance, and establish an
infrastructure for leadership development. It will also
promote entrepreneurialism in the cultural sector.
The programme aims to create a more high profile and
diverse leadership. It wants to encourage talented
people from all backgrounds and experience to work in
the cultural sector and contribute to creating an
environment where more people can engage with
creative pursuits.
Current plans suggest that over 1,000 individuals will
benefit directly; over 1,500 chairs and chief executives
of cultural organisations will be encouraged to adopt the
good practice code in governance; and an estimated
2,000 people will make use of the web-based advice,
information and guidance initiative.
Foulstone Mural,
Creative Partnership 27
 We have invested a great deal in the arts, culture and
creativity. This has helped to put in place a robust
infrastructure of excellence which has paid – and will
continue to pay – dividends across the board.
So the task now is to build on that infrastructure, and to
maintain the world class excellence that it at the heart of
everything the culture sector does.
We need to get people genuinely to participate in culture
and the arts and play an active role in the cultural life of
their communities. And we need to ensure our cultural and
creative sectors are able to respond to the challenges ahead.
We need to continue to ensure our historic environment
is able to thrive. It is a tangible reminder of our past and
helps to shape our present: people recognise it, value it
and want to protect it. We need to deliver proposals for a
new heritage protection system that will be simpler, more
open and more flexible – helping us to protect and
sustain this essential resource, both for us today and for
future generations.
More widely, we will re-examine how best to bring about
and support the continued success of the creative
industries. The Creative Economy Programme will be the
first comprehensive UK Government assessment of the
state of our creative economy. Following widespread
industry consultation, we plan to produce a Green Paper in
summer 2007 which will set out what makes the creative
economy so important to the UK, how the creative sectors
are changing, the drivers behind that change, and the
potential obstacles to productivity in the sectors.
It will have implications for Government policy in areas
including education and skills, business support,
technological development, and supporting the UK's
Chapter 5 cultural and economic infrastructure.
Challenges and There are some key milestones ahead. 2008 is when
Liverpool will become the European Capital of Culture,
opportunities ahead
with plans for a wide range of events including new
investment in buildings and public spaces, festivals and
performances. All with an emphasis on the participation
of the people of Liverpool and the rest of the country.
And the Olympic and Paralympic Games will provide a
world stage for British artists and a unique opportunity to
develop the country’s profile as an international cultural
leader. The cultural element of 2012 starts four years
earlier in 2008 with a programme leading up to and
through the Games themselves.
Other big projects will also be in place by 2012. The Royal
Festival Hall will have been re-opened as a place for all to
come together in one of the best cultural venues in the
country. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s new home at
Stratford-upon-Avon will be complete – a major addition
to the cultural landscape of the country. With the
additional revenue funding we have put in, we will be
maximising the benefits of a transformation of the
cultural infrastructure of the country through Lottery
funding: a transformation which not so long ago would
have been almost unimaginable.
So by 2012 we will have maintained and enhanced
Britain’s reputation for excellence in cultural and creative
innovation, as well as preserving and promoting our
heritage. We must continue to take investment and policy
decisions to support people – particularly young people –
in making the most of their talents and in meeting their
creative ambitions and expectations. We must do this not
only because these sectors have a vital role to play in
promoting social inclusion, building stronger communities
and supporting education and health, but because they
give us all the opportunity to live our lives to the full, to
understand where we come from and to shape our hopes
for the future.
Olympic host city announcement
EMPICS/Max Nash 29
 Liverpool, European Capital of Culture
2008

Liverpool won the chance to be the European Capital of

Culture in 2008, following a competition that drew
entries from 12 different cities in the UK. The purpose of
the title is not simply to highlight existing cultural
excellence, but to encourage cities to develop and
innovate in the cultural field.

Highlights from Liverpool in 2008 will include Sir Simon

Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, the first ever
Gustav Klimt exhibition in Britain at Tate Liverpool
(which will also be hosting this year’s Turner Prize, the
first time it has left London) and a major rock concert
on a floating stage in Albert Dock.

When Glasgow hosted the Year of Culture in 1990, the

image of the city was transformed, with over 3,400
public events, 40 major works commissioned in the
performing and visual arts, and 60 world premieres in
theatre and dance.

Albert Dock Pump House

and Pier Head, Liverpool

30 Chapter 5 Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008 31

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