'"Cultural placemaking", which refers to the role of arts, culture and heritage in shaping the places where we live, is an important concept in the context of Levelling Up.' Thus, the promising introduction to the 68-page report. Alas, not a promise it delivers on.
The case is certainly strong – and was undoubtedly strongly made by the 137 organisations and academics who made a submission to the inquiry – that culture can play a significant role in place-making and the levelling up agenda. And if indeed 'the UK is one of the most regionally unequal countries in the entire developed world', then levelling up is a much-needed ambition.
The report notes that 'it is evident that placed-based cultural policymaking can help deliver on the missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, including improving pride in place but also local leadership, living standards, education, skills, health and wellbeing, so long as these are done in a locally-sensitive way. Our Report discusses the ways that national and local stakeholders can unlock these benefits through investment in local culture and creative people.'
But I fear the committee’s recommendations are neither very ambitious nor far-reaching. The one to garner the most press coverage, due to its close timing to Arts Council England’s controversial recent funding decisions, was that flagship national organisations should be funded from a separate pot, so that there can be genuine comparison of funding levels across the country (including London) for grassroots arts activity.
Making Music is quoted twice in the body of the report (including on the value of music libraries), and cited a few more times, but it is this comment which reflects one of our points most clearly: 'Several submissions emphasised a lack of suitable spaces to meet need, with musical, performing and broadcasting forms in particular, like local choirs, bands and orchestras, describing spaces as inappropriate or unfit to serve as music venues.'
But the recommendation the committee follows up with ('one overall ambition for Levelling Up through culture should be that every region can boast world-class institutions alongside a local, accessible grassroots cultural ecosystem') focuses on aspirational performance spaces (and professional organisations). Whereas Making Music members are also (if not more) concerned with the lack of suitable hyperlocal venues for regular activity (which may be multi-purpose, rather than dedicated arts spaces). This concern is not addressed and may speak to the committee’s overall (perhaps politically motivated) reluctance to call for greater and more long-term funding of local authorities.
The only other recommendation which caught my eye was that the committee asks that 'the Government commits to explicitly incorporating support for local arts and culture into the Government’s first Statement for Levelling-Up Missions.'
Great, but here, as in so many parts of the report, the committee then references exclusively 'the social, cultural and economic value, of many creative businesses' (our emphasis).
In other words, despite valiant efforts by us (and many others), the report ultimately focuses almost entirely on the benefits to levelling up which professional arts organisations could bring, failing to understand the vast impact of leisure-time arts activity on communities and the essential role it could play in the Levelling Up agenda.
These were the specific questions posed by the committee during the inquiry:
How can culture reanimate our public spaces and shopping streets?
How can creatives contribute to local decision-making and planning of place?
How can the Government support places without established artistic infrastructure to take full advantage of the opportunities that the levelling up agenda provides?
How might changes to the UK’s broadcasting landscape affect investment in cultural production outside the capital, and what could the consequences be for artists and communities?
How should Government build on existing schemes, such as the UK City of Culture, to level up funding for arts and culture?
