I’ve had a couple of conversations with colleagues in the arts which have crystallised something for me about what is happening to the arts and culture under this government. It’s basically the amateurisation of the arts – the opposite of the professionalisation of our sector which we been urged towards over the past 15 or more years.
I’m indebted to my colleague Catherine Sutton at Arts Inform for the phrase – we were discussing how the Big Society idea seems likely to end up with some of us doing for free what we used to do for a living. This was sparked by an article in Classical Music magazine in which the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, seemed to suggest that if we were dissatisfied with our local library service, then we could improve it by going in and getting “behind the desk” to run it ourselves. In other words, if we think we can run the service better than a professional librarian can, we should do it ourselves as amateurs – incidentally, putting a professional librarian out of work thereby. (Presumably then the librarian could go and deploy his or her talents working in the local supermarket.)
Now I’m far from being opposed to amateurs. In my musical life I’m partly an amateur – and enthusiastic and long-serving member of the horn section of the Milton Keynes Sinfonia and other ensembles. I owe a great debt to amateur music-making, as other members of my family do to amateur dramatics. I admire the work of Making Music and the Voluntary Arts Network. But I mourn the loss of the support from government for a professionalised sector and the recognition of professional performers, artists, managers and others. I also think that the people who run Making Music and the Voluntary Arts Network are exemplary professionals.
A further perspective came from another friend of mine who said that she felt that the professionalisation of the arts had become a missed chance – that we have mistaken professional attitudes and practices with spending a lot of money on nice offices and high-class print. More money should have gone into the actual work and into developing our own skills, rather than producing plush leaflets and aping the ways of top business executives. I don’t entirely agree with her that the arts sector has done that badly – but I don’t entirely disagree, either, as we uncover new ways of saving money in our drive to cut costs.
However, I’m also reminded of a regional theatre which some years ago very nearly found itself being run by a local lawyer who thought the job of general manager would be an ideal early-retirement hobby, especially as it would obviously be mostly in the evenings…
We have to stick to our guns – to preserve the professional pride and standards of arts management (and arts education, arts marketing, arts development) while keeping the ship afloat in dismal times. We need to hold our own, not only against the relentless reduction in funding, but against the renewed tide of assumptions that the arts are just a hobby and could be done in their spare time just as well by any moderately educated person who loves art.
