14 June 2006
Speech by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to the IFACCA World Summit on Arts & Culture, Newcastle Gateshead
Introduction
First of all wanted to say that I am truly delighted to join you at the World Summit on Arts and Culture and to welcome you on behalf of the British Government.
I want in particular to thank IFACCA for choosing Newcastle-Gateshead to host this year's event and to congratulate Arts Council England North East for their vision in bringing such a prestigious event to this country. As I've tried to explain to people who I've spoken to, winning the right to host this conference is the equivalent to hosting the Olympics for arts and culture practitioners.
This incredible building shows how Newcastle-Gateshead is a living, breathing embodiment of the central point you will be discussing between now and the weekend. How culture transforms the lives of individuals, communities and indeed nations.
Arts Council 60th Birthday
This year we are celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of our Arts Council.
The summit's theme is the power of culture in transformation and regeneration. No where was this need felt more keenly than Britain in 1946. The UK was a country confronting the challenge of physical and social regeneration after the ravages of war.
In founding the modern Arts Council in 1946, that great reforming Labour Government made clear that it saw need for the public provision of culture as essential. As important to the health of society as education, health and new homes.
That bold and visionary commitment was summed up by the remarkable social reformer Michael Young in the 1945 Labour Party manifesto when he wrote:
"By the provision of concert halls, modern libraries, theatres and suitable civic centres, we desire to assure to our people full access to the great heritage of culture in this nation."
That double helix of excellence and access - that everyone, regardless of their background, wealth or education has the right to experience the very best that arts can offer - has been the Arts Council's DNA for the last sixty years.
And at the heart of that vision was the Arts Council as a public institution. Yes, this means public funding (but let's call it investment, not subsidy) but it is also much more than that.
Public because the Council was founded to represent the interests of the public not the desires of politicians. Public because culture is inherently social, formed through sometimes heated public debate, discussion and deliberation. Public because just as a healthy democracy is one where everyone not only has the right to vote but does so, the cultural life of a country is similarly enriched through the sustained access and participation of the people.
There have of course been challenges to the organisation over time. Funding has ebbed and flowed. I'm proud to say that our record in office is one which marks it clearly as a time of flow; doubling the Arts Council's funding since 1997. But the principle that decisions on the arts should be taken at arm's-length, free from political influence, has been a constant, and one to which I am committed.
That freedom to make decisions freely - without interference from the state or the market - has never been more important. The arts and culture are the means through which some of the most pressing issues confronting us can be – and in some instances can only be – explored and then understood.
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Identity and belonging
The bonds that tie communities cannot be those imposed by Government. Before understanding must come dialogue and exchange. The arts are space for shared experience.
In London just last month, over a million people were captivated by the story of a little girl and a time-travelling elephant. Even now it seems incredible, but the spell that 'The Sultan's Elephant' cast on those who saw it meant that for those few precious hours, everyone involved felt a sense of kinship and connectedness. Part of a single life-changing experience. And all in a single city.
The arts provide such opportunities every day across the globe. Given the increasingly diverse nature of our societies and the escalation of cultural dialogue and exchange in a globalised world, a chance for each individual to explore fundamental questions about where they belong and who they are with others will become more important not less.
Artists have the skills and opportunities to ask questions about and of society. At their best, artists challenge us to broaden our horizons and see the familiar anew. The arts provide the space to explore and affirm personal, community and national identity.
Artistic freedom
Some views will be challenging or even offensive to others. My views on this are a matter of record and ones I want to restate firmly today. Freedom of artistic expression is a fundamental principle of a free society. But this is not liberty as licence. Freedom of expression is not the freedom to insult, degrade or incite. But the freedom to resist, contest and question.
I - like many others - have been to events where I found the words or images used offensive. Where I was wrenched out of my personal comfort zone, and into something darker. So be it.
It is the right – arguably the duty – of the artist to challenge and provoke. Giving offence is rarely a legitimate end in itself, but it is sometimes the inevitable outcome of artistic exploration. A confident and cohesive society is prepared to accept this.
That's why it is so important for Arts Councils to have deep roots in public life. And it must be the duty of government to protect and promote an Arts Council's public status.
Cultural foreign policy
Of course such tensions are not always local or even national. In an increasingly globalised world culture, as a means of dialogue, can succeed where diplomacy fails.
The arts provide that space in which we can learn more about each other and our cultures and values. Celebrating what makes us different, but also highlighting what we have in common.
The forthcoming Latin American festival will bring the great public spaces of Newcastle-Gateshead from the Sage to the streets alive with the dazzling sounds and vibrant colours of a continent.
The British Museum's recent Persian exhibition was curated in negotiation with the National Museum in Tehran and the Iranian Government. And it was striking that even at a time of tension the new Vice-President of Iran opened the exhibition.
These are possibilities , a programme for change, which I am very keen to promote and develop. One which recognises- yes - a love of our own culture but also has an abiding wish to understand others'.
'Home' and 'Abroad' cannot easily be separated when it comes to the personal identity of many in this country; and nor should they be. Rather, I see them as an interdependent whole, with one supporting, stimulating and developing the other.
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Through the UK's diaspora communities we have strong links to countries all over the world. Enabling us to use the diverse culture of Britain to help build positive relationships abroad.
For example, the Royal Shakespeare Company have worked with the British Council and the Indian theatre company Dash Arts to co-produce A Midsummer Night's Dream. The work was developed in India before coming to Britain. It is performed in a variety of Indian languages and English bringing the audience not only a new and different understanding of Shakespeare but also of India and Britain.
As this summit shows culture is enriched through contact. That's why we are developing a piece of work that considers the role of international culture and I'd like to hear from you about what more we could do to cultivate curiosity in the best of the world and in the best that Britain has to offer.
One way – and I offer this as an idea - could be to establish an international prize for creativity sponsored by Britain. Something like a Nobel prize for the creative sectors that celebrates the best of international creativity for the world. I'm looking forward to hearing what the summit thinks of this idea and other suggestions that you might have.
I'm proud that one of the central themes of our successful Olympic bid for 2012 was our wish to embrace and celebrate the diversity of culture across the world, which is so fully reflected in modern London itself. A recognition that for all the things which on the surface seem to divide communities, there is so much more that unites and links us.
I hope very much that that will be your experience this week.
Finally, let me make another point. We all have to cope with people thinking that culture is just an optional extra in people's lives. But this is certainly not true in Gateshead and Newcastle, and not to anyone who has learnt what it has to give us. If you think about what we all take from own personal experiences of culture, then the power of culture becomes clear: if you want to understand the power of the ego in human history – read War and Peace; if you want to understand the beautiful death, listen to Das Lied Von der Erde; if you want to understand the crossroads where sex, love and violence meet, then look at Caravaggio.
So actually culture is not optional - it is everything, because it is culture that shows what it is to be human. You are the teachers who teach what it is to be human through culture.
I hope you have a great conference and go back home to continue to teach this lesson.
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