Dawn Airey Vows to Reconnect Youth With Culture — SkimNews
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- Dawn Airey, new chair of Arts Council England, said in her first interview since taking the job six weeks ago that cultural access "should almost be a human right" and called the engagement gap "an amazing opportunity."
- ACE's first Creative Young Lives survey found just 51.79% of young people visited a museum in the past year, 48.56% went to the theatre, 26.31% to an art gallery, and only 22.25% to a music event — yet 74% said being creative was important to them.
- Cost is the biggest barrier to participation, with 32% of respondents saying it stopped them visiting cultural venues and 55% saying more affordable activities would increase engagement.
- Airey said she found the ACE London office "quiet, a little bit subdued" on her first visit and declared: "I want us to be loud" — vowing to move the body away from being "process-driven."
- ACE has faced a bumpy stretch including huge Conservative-era funding cuts, a Grantium platform crash that left arts groups in funding limbo, and a Margaret Hodge review criticizing application processes that "stifled creativity and innovation."
- Dowdales school in Dalton-in-Furness, which maintains partnerships with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, illustrates the on-the-ground fight — headteacher Emma Aubrey said keeping arts education "front and centre" has been a "battle" as it is marginalised nationally.
- ACE distributes more than £650m a year and will publish "simpler" guidance next week for its next national portfolio funding round.
Why it matters: Airey takes over an organization distributing £650m annually that has been battered by cuts, a platform crash, and a scathing Hodge review — and her own survey shows the demand is there (74% of children value creativity) but the access isn't (only ~22% reached a music event). The new "simpler" funding guidance due next week is the first concrete test of whether her "swagger" pledge translates into less bureaucratic gatekeeping for the grass-roots groups who say they need an advocate.
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