Press release - 15 July 2002

NCA gives guarded welcome to arts spending review gains

The National Campaign for the Arts welcomes the Chancellor's announcement this afternoon of an increase to the national arts budget. The boost received means that the arts will benefit from an above inflation settlement for the next three years.

Additional money for the Creative Partnerships scheme is particularly warmly welcomed. With combined funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) the NCA is looking forward to the programme being doubled in size. This will provide more young people with the opportunity to experience creative teaching and learning at first hand.

The NCA is keen to discover whether the suggested boost for regional museums mentioned in the Chancellor's speech will make possible the full realisation of the proposals outlined in Resource's planned Renaissance in the Regions.

There is fantastic news for the voluntary arts sector, who will stand to benefit from the extra £125 million now available over three years to voluntary charitable and community organisations to help deliver local and community services.

However, with Lottery money to good causes - money on which the arts relies for half its central funding - declining due to falling ticket sales, the arts will face renewed reliance on central Treasury funding. Given the current fall-off in Lottery income, the Treasury settlement, though extremely welcome, will struggle to maintain overall arts funding at today's levels.

Victoria Todd, Director of the National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) said "We welcome the increase in funding for the arts and the museum sector, but hope that the DCMS will keep a keen eye on the declining levels of Lottery funding on which the arts have increasingly come to depend."

Beyond the additional funds targeted on the DCMS, the arts also stand to benefit from cash for cross-departmental projects - but the extent of such funding is hard to identify at this stage. The NCA looks forward to hearing more on these initiatives. The NCA hope that an increase in cross-departmental initiatives will encourage all government departments to recognise the intrinsic importance of the arts and culture to our wellbeing as a nation.

Return to index