Responses
The Commision's research process has been based around extensive consultation with members of the cultural and creative industries. Below are some initial responses from the sector to the Commission's report. You can read more comments here and have your say #enrichinggb.
Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director, Tricycle Theatre
I wholeheartedly welcome this visionary and timely report that calls for a transformation in how we create, celebrate and participate in the arts and cultural activities in this country. The principles of diversity and cultural entitlement for all are central to me as an artist and as a person. This much needed report sets out with immense clarity the holistic steps we can take to secure a future for the arts and creative industries that is more diverse, vibrant and sustainable and therefore accessible for all.
Bob and Roberta Smith, artist
The Warwick Commission Report presents the possibility for a new architecture for how we understand the Arts. In the 21st Century C.P Snow's 'Two cultures' distinction has been made irrelevant by the emergence of the power of digital technology. [...] The report importantly demands change of Arts institutions themselves. If we do not make audiences look more like taxpayers we undermine the great work everyone is doing. Almost 100 years ago the Bauhaus emerged out of the ruins of Europe to develop a new, modernist language in which developments in technology were to thrive. Digital technology presents a similar seismic revolution. This fascinating and detailed report requires that all involved in the Arts and Government act to imagine and design the future and that everyone is involved in this fruitful negotiation.
Amanda Nevill, Chief Executive, BFI
We live in an age where creativity is a driving force of the economy, whether behind fashion, film or fan based video games. This report reminds us that unlike manufacturing, where innovation has to be followed with a cookie-cutter production, the creative industries, (and film is a great example) instead depends on an ability to constantly re-invent, in such a way as to repeatedly capture our hearts, emotions and imagination anew every time. And tap our purses! This report starts to pull out some of those important and yet often intangible ingredients that we need, if we are to continue to ignite that magic spark in the minds of the next generation. And to succeed, we need to involve ALL of the next generation, not just some…. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity often isn’t, and the richness and depth of future success, creatively and economically, depends on us winkling out that talent no matter where it is.
Anthony Sargent CBE, General Director, Sage Gateshead
In a period which has seen a snowstorm of well-intentioned papers on specific aspects of our cultural life, this remarkable report stands out for its assembly of a very wide range of different kinds of evidence, and its enormously impressive overall coherence of analysis. It is also very timely. While we are increasingly seeing the importance of viewing the UK’s cultural and creative life through a holistic lens, few have seen that intention through with the rigour and the compelling sweep of argument in this report. It does not just affirm that we need to take a joined-up view of the UK’s cultural and creative industries. In page after page of forceful argument it explains why that is so important, and as never before helps us see how and where all the different bits of the picture connect. Those powerful foundations (with rational arguments built on unarguable facts) then inform very clear recommendations which, if even half of them were implemented, would transform the cultural life of the UK and make a defining long-term contribution to our civil society and to the communities we serve and in which we all live. This is the report we have all been waiting for. I cannot welcome it too warmly.
Kenneth Tharp, Chief Executive, The Place
Rather than existing as a narrow argument for the cultural and creative industries, this report seeks to outline the vital role that arts, culture and the creative industries play in shaping and defining the society we live in or indeed wish to live in. And whilst it is in many ways a celebration of the huge richness and diversity of our creative and cultural capital in the UK, the report also serves as a timely reminder that so many things have changed in the world, and that we cannot take for granted our continued success without giving serious thought to new ways of behaving. It is a warning against a complacency that suggests we can carry on as we have done and continue to reap the rewards of a rich cultural biodiversity that has been built in this country over many years.As we head fast towards a general election, I believe there is plenty in this report to suggest more than ever, the need for a paradigm shift from the all too often binary language of politics that says we have to choose this or that; if they say that, then we must do this. If we can¹t learn to join the dots and work better together to reap the benefits of our complex cultural and creative ecosystem, then in the words of that familiar and much loved TV character Private Frazer from Dad's Army 'we're doomed.'
Dame Reena Keeble DBE, EdD
I strongly welcome this report, it is ambitious, challenging and most importantly, aspirational. It recognises the crucial role school leaders could play in ensuring our young people are exposed to a rich multi-disciplinary mix of science, technology, art, humanities and enterprise that underpin creative success. We are in a privileged position to make a difference.