Letter: A visionary blueprint for the arts
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: While opinion is free, facts are sacred, and although I welcome constructive debate, I would like to correct some factual inaccuracies that appeared in both the leading article and news story on A Creative Future (30 September).
In A Creative Future we have produced what I believe to be a radical and visionary statement that is an important part of the outcome of the Arts and Media Strategy process. However, it is only a part. In December, HMSO will publish the full document. The final version of A Creative Future will form the first section. This document has yet to be presented to Peter Brooke, Secretary of State for National Heritage.
A Creative Future is the first attempt to produce a statement of principle, policy and priority for the whole funding system - the Arts Council, British Film Institute, Crafts Council and 10 regional arts boards. Broader issues such as the role of museums (which fall outside our remit) will be discussed in the full document. It is the culmination of the largest consultation exercise ever undertaken in the arts world. It aims to be relevant to all art forms and every scale of organisation.
A strategy which fails to recognise that cultural diversity and the amateur sector are among the glories of Britain's arts, and which argues that accessibility is simply a matter of reducing ticket prices for opera would be selling the arts world and the public short.
A Creative Future is undoubtedly strategic, but it is not, as your leading article suggests, a detailed Arts Council action plan. This already exists in the form of our four-year corporate plan, which includes detailed costings. Like the plans of each of our funding partners, it will be rewritten in the light of A Creative Future, the blueprint for the arts in the next decade.
Yours faithfully,
ANTHONY EVERITT
Secretary-General
Arts Council
London, SW1
30 September
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