Support package for the arts is too little, too late

I am perplexed by your report on the government’s commitment to provide £1.57bn to support the arts and cultural sector (Boris Johnson pledges £1.5bn lifeline to keep UK’s arts sector afloat, 5 July ). You cite the Royal Court’s Vicky Featherstone claiming that this is an “extraordinary amount of money”, Arts Council England’s Nicholas Serota welcoming the government’s “faith” in the creative sector and the playwright James Graham saying this is a “surprisingly ambitious package, especially when (compared) with some of our European neighbours.”

Let us compare this apparent largesse with France and Germany. In France, arts festivals, independent production houses and small arts production companies can claim from a €7bn fund for small businesses to compensate for cancelled shows, film shoots and other events (World spends to protect culture from economic ruin, 18 June). In March, Germany’s culture minister, Monika Grütters, pledged €50bn to support the creative sector, and ministers complained this was insufficient and asked for more.

The prime minister is fond of saying Britain is world-leading. For once he might be right when it comes to the creative industries, but they are being torn apart by coronavirus. We have yet to see support for the tens of thousands of freelance arts workers whose livelihoods have been wrecked.
Dr Simon Sweeney
University of York

• I read Michael Billington’s column (Dear Oliver Dowden, have you even begun to grasp the scale of our arts crisis?, 4 July) with interest and complete agreement that this government needs to get a grip of this situation as many cultural institutions face economic oblivion. I watched Nicholas Hytner on BBC Newsnight last Friday and the message is unequivocal: sustained assistance must be forthcoming from the government. The other economic help from the government is welcome, but the arts sector cannot be allowed to evaporate.

I have watched Oliver Dowden at the press briefings and he appears semi-cognisant of this dire situation, but that is not enough. I am a volunteer steward at a local theatre and appreciate what effect productions can have on the wellbeing of audiences. To witness our iconic theatres and venues sliding away will be like watching a cultural Titanic disappear from view with the orchestra valiantly playing on, while the ship goes down.
Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

• I’m sure there will be an enormous number of artists, musicians and writers who will identify with Michael Billington’s call for decisive action from Oliver Dowden. Over the last 50 years, Britain has assumed a position in the frontline of internationally acclaimed cultural work. For this to be allowed to wither away is unacceptable. It would be mean that for arts practitioners, as well as their audiences, life would be reduced to a hollow, meaningless round of eating, drinking and comedy repeats on TV.
Meirion Bowen
London

• The reduced size of orchestras and physical distancing of musicians required for this year’s Proms (BBC Proms: details announced of festival behind closed doors, 3 July) suggests that now is the ideal time for performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Helicopter Quartet. First performed in 1995, it was written for a string quartet, with the musicians airborne in four separate helicopters, coordinated and mixed by an earthbound sound crew. An extreme form of social distancing, perhaps, but just as effective as hand-washing and face masks.
Clive Sykes
London