Leader: Quality wins out in the arts - but support is still needed

Oct 2 2009 by Terry Grimley, Birmingham Post

Reflecting on some pleasing box office statistics which will be presented to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s annual general meeting today, artistic director Michael Boyd has been pondering why his company has been doing so well during the recession.

“The sociable act of gathering in the same space to share an imaginative journey, through real time, with performers and other audience members is proving more attractive than ever,” he says. “Perhaps people are seeking the authenticity of an art form which works with the full human presence, at a time when so many voices in politics and the media seem inauthentic and dehumanised.”

Whatever the precise reason, the relative cushioning of arts and entertainment during times of economic hardship has often been commented upon. It is assumed to be significant that the golden age of MGM musicals coincided with the Great Depression, or that the origins of Britain’s system of public subsidy of the arts lay not in an era of peacetime plenty but the desperate days of the Second World War. The RSC has not been alone in reporting brisk business during the downturn, but it can never be taken for granted. The crowds which have recently flocked to the CBSO’s concerts with its exciting young conductor Andris Nelsons were conspicuously absent on Wednesday when the main business was the world premiere of Colin Matthews’ Violin Concerto.

On the other hand, tonight’s tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the orchestra’s third Symphony Hall concert in a week, is sold out.

It may be that audiences will tend to stay with what they know. Whatever New Labour’s performance in other areas, the last 12 years have been a period of relatively generous support for the arts, and there is a direct connection between that and the quality of much that has been delivered.