More than 4,000 artists and arts professionals, including Sonia Boyce and John Akomfrah, have signed a letter to the UK department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), urging the newly elected government to support the beleaguered visual arts sector.
Earlier this year, before the General Election, over 20 UK visual arts organisations issued a collective manifesto calling on the incoming government to back “a roadmap to sustain the visual arts for the long term”. This new letter—coordinated by DACS, A-N The Artists Information Company and Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN)—asks the UK government to consider recommendations made in this manifesto.
These recommendations include short-term policies such as the appointment of a “freelancer commissioner” to advocate for the needs and interests of freelance visual artists and creative workers. Another integral proposal involves establishing a Smart Fund aimed at creating new collective licensing revenue for artists, writers, performers and directors when copyright-protected works are created, shared, or distributed, across digital devices.
Long-term goals should meanwhile focus on incorporating exhibition payments into copyright law and providing financial stability for disabled artists, says the manifesto. The joint document also proposes integrating “visual literacy into the national curriculum at Key Stage 2, ensuring every school child visits a cultural organisation every year”.
Retaining and expanding the Museum Gallery Exhibition Tax Relief to include performance and live art, digital online exhibitions, sales of work, educational activity is also key, says the joint plan. Rejoining the EU’s Creative Europe programme, which awarded €89.5m to UK-based creative organisations between 2014 and 2018, is another objective.
Akomfrah, who is representing Britain at the 2024 Venice Biennale, says in a statement: “Artists have been unsupported for too long, and the new government has the opportunity to put this right by investing in creative education, by supporting freelance artists, and by enabling new spaces for the creation of art, across the UK. This manifesto provides a framework for the long-term success of the visual arts." Other signatories include the artists Mona Hatoum, Jade de Montserrat, George Shaw and Haroon Mirza.
Julie Lomax, the chief executive of a-n, adds: “We feel confident that the government will agree to collaborate with us by making small changes, such as legislation, which will have a huge impact on the livelihoods of artists and the health of the visual arts in the UK.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, will deliver the Autumn Budget 30 October when the government will set out its fiscal plans for all government departments.
