What does an international culture summit do?
August 7 2012
Why do we value the arts? Why, in Britain and many other countries, does the state support them? Between 2004-6, I used to work in politics advising the Conservative party on arts and heritage policy. Even though being in opposition is obviously frustrating, we in the shadow DCMS [Department of Culture, Media and Sport] team set out some important policies which have since been implemented by the coalition government, such as increasing Lottery funding to the arts, heritage and sports. Perhaps most importantly, we managed to persuade the Conservative party (which in its history has displayed worrying signs of Philistinism) that the arts are worth supporting, period. (We also, I'm proud to say, managed to stop those planned 'Super Casinos').
A perennial discussion at the time was over how government should 'value' culture and the arts. Labour Culture ministers had figured out that the best way to squeeze money out of Gordon Brown was to present culture as a social tool, the so-called 'instrumental argument' by which you say that the arts can help cut crime and hospital waiting lists. We, on the other hand, argued that this was all fine but funding museums to tackle social problems diverted them from their core purpose, and that you should support the arts on their own merits (the so-called 'intrinsic argument'). There were endless seminars and thinktank pamphlets on the matter, in which people spoke in jargon-laden platitudes, the sort that make your brain hurt. Thankfully, this rather tedious debate has moved on, and most people in government these day are happy to fund culture simply because it's good, and people like it. As the Arts Council used to say in the old days, when the great Kenneth Clark was there; 'the best for the most'.
But it sounds as if the whole question is about to be re-opened, for in Edinburgh later this month there will be an 'International Culture Summit'. Say the organisers:
Culture ministers and leading commentators from around 40 countries around the world are set to gather next week for the Edinburgh International Culture Summit – the first-ever event of its kind.
Amid a global economic crisis, wars and revolutions, the Culture Summit will ask why culture remains important, explore its contribution to social and economic development and compare international approaches to promoting and supporting culture.
Though I wait with interest to see what answers the summit comes up with, I dread having to go through the whole 'why should the state support culture' argument all over again. You can get a glimpse of the quality of the discussions to be had in this 'think piece' by one of the organisers, Edinburgh Festival director Jonathan Mills, a man who clearly needs to study more history:
We have already begun to enter a period in history where no specific culture, ideology, theocracy or politics will be all pervasive or dominant. We are now living in world in which knowledge comes simultaneously from various, divergent technological, ethical, philosophical, and above all, cultural sources and locations.
In a world which is facing monumental challenges, especially in light of a series of recent, acute and on-going economic crises, a summit focussing on mutual cultural interests and shared human values is both timely and appropriate.
