Arts industry leaders welcome 'vindicating' £1.57 billion rescue package, but ask for clarity from government

Arts leaders and institutions have welcomed the government’s announcement of a £1.57 billion support package for the industry.

Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah said his team “slept for the first time since March” when they heard the news.

“It is a real vindication that we have been listened to and that the Government understands that we were dying on our knees and also that we are an important part of our country’s recovery.”

The move has also been welcomed by Tate, the Science Museum Group, the National Gallery and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The rescue package was announced last night with the Government saying it “represents the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture”. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said: ““I understand the grave challenges the arts face and we must protect and preserve all we can for future generations.”

Arts Council chair Nicholas Serota said: “I know our amazing artists and creative organisations will repay the faith that the Government has shown by demonstrating the range of their creativity, by serving their communities and by helping the nation recover as we emerge from the pandemic.”

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairman Julian Knight said the support package will take some cultural institutions out of the “danger zone”. However, he said more is needed to secure the sector’s future, including possible tax breaks.

Shadow DCMS secretary Jo Stevens told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour that, although the funding is a much-needed relief for the industry, for some it is “already too late”. Last week, Southampton’s Nuffield Theatres announced they would be closing for good, while the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester entered into a period of redundancies and the National Theatre laid off its entire casual workforce.

“I do wonder what took the Government so long,” Stevens said. “They have known the problems in the sector for weeks and weeks and weeks, and for some areas and some organisations and theatres across the country from north to south, it’s already too late, jobs have gone.

“So the big things will be how quickly it’s going to get to people, how is it going to be spread around the country in towns and small cities, [where] arts and culture venues are so valuable to local economies.”

The funding was well-received by composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber, who said the news is “truly welcome at a time when so many theatres, orchestras, entertainment venues and other arts organisations face such a bleak future”. Simon Rattle, director of the London Symphony Orchestra, called for the money to be "distributed as fast as possible".

Freelancers Make Theatre Work, a collective of advocates for freelance theatre workers, said on Twitter that they welcomed the news with “a great deal of relief”, adding that it is “great news for the sector as a whole and all the vulnerable freelancers who make up 70% of the industry and are the creative backbone of the work you see on stage”.

They said the next step would be to “ensure the right people are in the room and freelancers are represented when decisions are made about what and who this investment goes to.”

Julian Bird, chief executive of Society of London Theatres (SOLT) also said that “venues, producers and the huge workforce in the theatre sector look forward to clarity of how these funds will be allocated and invested, so that artists and organisations can get back to work as soon as possible.”

Many are looking for more information about where the money will be going. Chair of the newly founded Live Comedy Association, Bríd Kirby, said: “Let’s see comedy included. I’ve given the last 3 months to do whatever I can to ensure comedy is included. It’s currently vague, but we have a meeting with DCMS tomorrow and I will bring back answers. I hope we haven’t been forgotten but if so I will PUSH PUSH PUSH for support.”

Armando Iannucci, writer and director of The Personal History Of David Copperfield, hailed the funding as “good news”, tweeting: “Won’t solve everything but it’s a very positive development.”

With additional reporting by Press Association