HURRAY FOR THE VIGOUR OF YOUTH

At the Business of Culture’s 10th birthday party at the Africa Centre on May 16th it was  noted that very few start-up businesses survived let alone thrived for 10 years.

Also, banging a familiar drum, speakers reflected on the importance of the cultural sector:
“Quite simply culture – the arts, in all their forms to the creative industries to tourism - is very big business for the UK economy.  And in the UK we are rather good at creativity.  We have the best art galleries, opera houses, theatres, advertising agencies, specialist film companies, digital creative shops and street theatre in the world.

We must resist our very British reticence in selling these core skills.

Maria Miller our Culture Secretary recently asked our community to: “help reframe the argument: to hammer home the value of culture to our economy…”

Try this Maria.  Quite simply, we are the best at all this – arts – culture – creative industries. This tiny country represents just 1% of the world’s population and probably 15% of the world’s noise in the global conversation about culture. That alone is a reason to invest in (not subsidise) invest in this sector. We are a dynamic revenue earning force. We are a leading global force. We need to act and speak like one and be appreciated by Government.”

Fortunately the perception of the arts and culture as being businesses too is now not unfamiliar.

I was talking to someone about all this who said:-
 “Well maybe but aren’t we looking at this in rather a skewed way?

For sure London may even be the arts centre of the world but that’s small comfort if you are living in Newcastle or Bristol or the suburbs.”

I don’t buy that.

All round the UK some great stuff is happening.

In Brighton the Brighton Festival is just finishing. And I just want to talk about two events at it. Chansons Instrumentales who produced three concerts on Poulenc and Hahn - and the Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Young Artists lunchtime concert.

If one went to no other event this year at the Festival (or quite simply to no other event anywhere until the end of 2013) the talent, freshness, joy and energy we saw and heard in these shows would be enough to keep one’s  spirit nourished.

And it isn’t just a story of the West End of London where there’s a rich vein of emergent indigenous talent. In drama, for instance, it’s finding fulfilment on stages at theatres like the White Bear in Kennington and the Drayton Theatre in South Kensington and on the screen in rousing series like the Borgias and Game of Thrones (winner of the Radio Times Audience Award at this year's Bafta Television Awards) where the majority of actors are British and young.

They say that currently one of the most popular careers for young people is the restaurant business because it’s fast moving, creative and fun.

Watch the space.

I suspect the arts and cultural sector is next and because of rental prices in London expect to see surges in the arts outside the capital too.  Businesses, please pay attention to this – it may be the lowest-cost sponsorship opportunity you’ll ever come across.  So the silver lining in the austerity and unemployment cloud could be an intelligent deployment of funds which turns shiftless despair into music, dance and drama.

Isn’t it so much better being an optimist and admiring the spirit of youth?

Written by Richard Hall and first published on the
Business of Culture site