Here we go again. Yet another politician who doesnt understand that funding for the arts is an investment that replays itself time and again and not just a cost. Forget the emotional arguments, were talking about hard cash. Birmingham City Council realised years ago that it would never attract inward investment (particularly from international companies) and create jobs if it did not have a cultural scene that would tempt companies away from London and the South East. Modern employers are highly mobile and will go where the facilities are best. And that does not just mean infrastructure and roads. Having thriving cultural activity keeps employees in the area. Thats why they built Symphony Hall for the CBSO and why they gave the Birmingham Royal Ballet the facilities to keep them in Birmingham when the Royal Ballet moved back to London. Any policy of degrading the cultural landscape is short-sighted, to put it politely. Vienna, one of the cultural capitals of the world, is so dependent on the money that culture brings in that it actually funds its own scientific research programme aimed at improving the cultural scene there. The benefits deriving from classical music are some of the best researched areas around. Hardly a month passes without the results of a new piece of research being announced. Without exception, every single study confirms the enormous benefits to both the individual and to society in general from being involved with classical music-making. What might seem like a “nice to have” turns out to be some of the best preparation for becoming a balanced and useful member of society in so many different areas, particularly if children are taught to play instruments. Indeed, the benefits are so important for society as a whole that poor countries such as Venezuela have devoted considerable amounts of their scarce public resources to musical education purely because of the good it achieves. One clear aim (and success) of the Venezuelan scheme (“El Sistema”) is to prevent children drifting towards low-level criminality and gang culture. Would the Northern Ireland government prefer to run the risk of not having these benefits by letting one of the linchpins of the cultural scene just disappear? It seems to me that just contemplating such a possibility is the equivalent of saying “I couldnt care less about the future of Northern Ireland and its economy”. Any politician who cannot do their utmost to provide what is in effect government small change to keep a vital part of Northern Irelands cultural scene viable deserves to be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 11:15:35 +0000