Sajid Javid: arts industry must do more for poor and ethnic minorities
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Version 0 of 1. Sajid Javid, the culture secretary, has told the arts world that it must do more to stop the poor and people from black and minority ethnic communities being "culturally disenfranchised". In his first speech since taking up his post in April, Javid said the social exclusivity of the cultural sector was unacceptable and that he wanted the industry to apply its creativity to "capturing new audiences and nurturing new talents". Javid also explained why he believed that his background as a banker, and a staunch Thatcherite, made him well qualified to oversee a sector well known for its scepticism, or even hostility, towards free-market ideology. Speaking at an arts centre in Bristol, near where he was brought up on a road that has been described as Britain's most dangerous street, Javid said that when he was young he felt excluded from the arts. "For a bus driver's son, the idea of popping along to the Donmar Warehouse – or even the Bristol Old Vic – to take in a cutting-edge new production was simply not on the agenda. It wasn't what people like me, people from my background did," said Javid, who has elaborated on his thinking in an interview with Mark Lawson for the Guardian. "As a youngster, the closest I ever came to the creative industries was when the careers adviser at Downend comprehensive told me I should work in television – repairing them at Radio Rentals." Javid said that although he recognised that much had changed since then, "there are still far too many people in our country who are effectively excluded from what should be our shared cultural life", both as consumers of culture and as producers. People from lower socio-economic classes were less likely to visit galleries and museums, he said, with the result that "a lot of people who are paying to support culture through their taxes and lottery tickets seem to think that consuming it is simply not for them". Jobs in the arts often required people to start on little or no pay, he added, "effectively barring access if you don't have 'the Bank of Mum and Dad'," he went on. "For a sector that receives so much public subsidy, that's unacceptable." He said people from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds were also significantly less engaged with the arts world: "BME taxpayers help support culture in just the same way as white taxpayers, but are much less likely to attend a performance or visit a gallery. And while 14% of the UK's population is non-white, BME applicants were awarded just 5.5% of Grants for the Arts awards last year. Why is this? Are BME people simply less artistic, less talented? Of course not." Javid said this mattered because culture was more than a privilege: "If you are not engaged with our cultural life, you're not engaged with our national life. Too many Britons are culturally disenfranchised." Without prescribing a solution, Javid said cultural leaders should use their imaginations to address this problem. Revealing he has a portrait of Lady Thatcher on his office wall, he said she was there partly because she showed that "it's possible to rise from humble beginnings and reach the top". He also said his background in finance made him suited for the job: "Throughout my career, I've always been clear that the job of government isn't to tell people and organisations what to do. It's to create an environment in which they can thrive." |