But here, as a form of catharsis, and because sometimes at the end of a long week you just have to, is a written up version of what ran through my mind as I listened to the Secretary of State’s speech on Wednesday morning. OK, here goes…

To my surprise, there was much to agree with in her opening lines…

“Arts and culture underpin what it means to be British; how we see ourselves; and how the world sees us. Our culture is our hallmark, and it makes the UK distinctive in a globalised world.”

Absolutely, Maria, I’m there with you on this. So’s everyone else in the room (I think). Where’s the flag? Oh, yep, it’s there, on stage on the DCMS banner. We love Danny Boyle! Wasn’t that NHS bit in the opening ceremony brilliant…

“The arts stimulate us, educate us, challenge and amuse us. They are of instrumental, as well as intrinsic, value and their social benefits are numerous and beyond doubt.”

Well, I’m not sure that everyone across the country gets this just yet, but it’s great to hear her say it. Way to go.

“With that in mind, today I want to argue that culture does not simply have a role to play in bringing about a return to growth. Rather, it should be central to these efforts.”

Yay, she gets that bit too – we help make money. Blimey.

“Understanding the economic potential which the arts and culture offer both directly and indirectly is essential.”

Yep, I’m a pragmatist, I know where the government stands on this, so I can go with this one. Anyway, I know we have the stats to back this up, so yep, that’s fine.

Oh oh. Hang on. We’ve changed tack. The first reference to “your sector”, when so far it’s been about all being in it together. Oh, and we’re off to familiar territory, and it’s as if we’re listening to Rent-a-Minister on the Today programme…

“Faced with a crippling budget deficit, there are big choices to be made at both a national and a local level, few of which are easy, or palatable…. You will all have seen the reported headline figures for the savings that will need to be made as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.”

And now, it’s getting worse. What to make of this next statement?

“Some in the sector say that arts funding should be treated as a special case. They argue that Government support for the arts is less than 1% of total Government funding; and that’s a drop in the ocean. Culture cannot be seen in isolation at a time of unprecedented economic challenge. Everyone has to play a part in our efforts to reduce the deficit, my Department is no exception. Do we want to be seen to inspire our children or leave them with a mountain of debt?”

And suddenly I’m directing my comments directly to the Secretary of State, albeit telepathically, and with little success….

Hang on a minute. Are you really saying that maintaining a commitment to the tiny 0.05% (that’s 5p in a pound) is going to cripple the country? Surely you’ve just told us that you realise we actually make a positive economic contribution to the country. Surely investing in the growth you’ve just said we’re a part of is the way to avoid that mountain of debt? And what’s that about inspiring our children? I’m pretty sure we do that too – really well. So, why are you framing this as a choice? Oh, I don’t like the way this is going… (If this was interactive telly, a la Question Time in my living room, I’d have been shouting very loudly by now. As it was, I resigned myself to a fair amount of huffing and loud whispering to the person sitting next to me.)

And then it really veered off into territory that was miles from where she’d started, just a few minutes earlier…

“It is with this at the fore of my mind that I come to you today and ask you to help me reframe the argument: to hammer home the value of culture to our economy. I know this will not be to everyone’s taste; some simply want money and silence from Government, but in an age of austerity, when times are tough and money is tight, our focus must be on culture’s economic impact.”

Nooooo! She doesn’t get it, after all. Not at all, on so many levels. OMG. Cue mass fidgeting in seats, whispering to neighbours, and more furious tweeting. Here’s what was going through my mind in the midst of all that… (Still directly addressing the Secretary of State telepathically; no more of this third person stuff…)

Point number 1: Of course, we can hammer that message home; we’ve been hammering it home for as many years as I can remember.

Point number 2: Actually, we don’t want money and silence from government, we want useful, constructive dialogue, with a Secretary of State who believes in and can articulate all the arguments for why the arts matter and the impact they have. Attitude not platitudes, please, Secretary of State.

Point 3: With your reference to “culture’s economic impact”, if you’re going to focus on the ‘instrumental’ impact, think laterally. You’ve told us the arts “social benefits are numerous and beyond doubt”, so don’t forget to add into your economic case how the arts’ contribution to wellbeing, mental and physical health plays out economically, how the contribution to social cohesion has an impact on crime levels, how cultural education unlocks creativity and innovation, which by your own admission “underpins wider industry”.

Ok, time to tune back in again…

“To maintain the argument for continued public funding, we must make the case as a two-way street. We must demonstrate the healthy dividends that our investment continues to pay. That’s the argument that I, as Culture Secretary, intend to make in my approach to this spending round – and I need all your help in that endeavour.”

Hang on a minute. Why aren’t you making that argument already? Why are you only now asking us to help you? The Spending Review is going to be published in less than 2 months. What can we do that we haven’t already done in that time? How precisely do you want us to help you?

“So, over the coming weeks and months, I will argue that our cultural sector can bring opportunities, regeneration, jobs and growth.”

No, not “can” Secretary of State, “does”; the cultural sector “does” bring opportunities, regeneration, jobs and growth. And all that other stuff I just mentioned when I was fidgeting in my seat and getting nervous. You know, about social cohesion, and well being, and health. You know, the stuff that costs you – and us – billions of pounds every year.

So, maybe Maria has heard my loud whispers. She’s suddenly back to listing some of the contributions the arts make to the economy, and to cultural diplomacy…

“All the research shows that culture encourages tourists to visit our country. 40% of tourists to the UK cite culture and heritage as the primary reason for their visit. This generates tens of billions of pounds each year for the UK economy…through tickets and entrance fees, (and) ….in shops, hotels and restaurants. All of which is delivering real economic benefits to local businesses and local communities. This impact can be felt up and down the country. As we look to rebalance our economy geographically, regional arts and culture have an essential role to play.”

OK??? So, you do know the argument then? Now I’m at a total loss as to what the point of the speech is supposed to be.

And then, before we know it, it’s time for the closing call to arms…

“We specialise in creativity and innovation, and I remain committed to supporting the long-term sustainability of UK art and culture. We need to work together: to create, and to innovate… My call to you as arts and cultural leaders then is simple. I ask you:
• to continue to build resilience, self-confidence and self-reliance;
• to seek out new artistic and commercial opportunities;
• to position yourself squarely within the visitor economy;
• and to look for international opportunities which will benefit Britain.”

Oh, that’s it? There’s no policy, no plan for growth? No specifics? You’ve really finished? Just let me get this straight in my head…

…You’ve got the stats, but you need our help to make the case – with just 2 months to go till the Spending Review. So, that’s too late surely. How does this make any kind of sense?

…We’re central to economic growth, but there’s no growth strategy, just a continued focus on cuts. Oh-oh, that sound ominous to anyone else?

…We have a massive impact socially, on health, on education, on people’s ability to innovate, all of which have a massive economic impact in themselves, but you don’t want to talk about that to the Treasury. Really? As a fundraiser, that’s the kind of thing that I’m always asked to articulate. Think it might help us here too.

Secretary of State, we can help you with all of this, but I’m not sure it will do much good. It’s too little, too late. Not just because the Spending Review is 2 months away, but because I don’t believe you care, I don’t believe you want to make the argument.

In fact, I’m not sure you even believe the argument. And that’s the most worrying thing. The thing that will make the most difference in those discussions with the Treasury.

I do a lot of fundraising training, and one of the key things we drum into people charged with making a case for what they do is that being passionate, having a strong belief in what you’re talking about, and being able to convey this, is every bit as important as having the evidence. And, based on what you’ve said today, I don’t see any passion. I don’t see any belief. I don’t see you convincing George Osborne.

Hmmmm?, we really do have our work cut out…

This is important stuff. In a week where the Chancellor announced that £11.5bn in further cuts will be finalised in June, and with a Culture Minister refuting all claims of a funding crisis in the arts we’ve got our work cut out, and we need to act now.

It couldn’t be clearer how imperative it is that we engage our audiences and participants, our volunteers and trustees in communicating to central and local government how important the arts are to them. That, as the Local Government Association reported earlier this month, what we do not only makes money, but also makes life worth living. And that that the £398m the government spent on the arts in 2011/12 (just 0.06% of total spending) is worth every penny.

When a hospital is under threat, it’s patient power – constituent power – that’s most likely to sway the politicians’ thinking, not the latest report from hospital mandarins or a meeting with hospital staff. What inspires me about What Next? is that, like the My Theatre Matters campaign launched last week it’s about harnessing ‘punter’ power.

The ask on 29 April is simple. Come along, join in. Be ready to think laterally and pragmatically about how we can together mobilise our audiences, participants, our front of house volunteers, our board members, to tell the story of why the arts matter to them. That’s it. As a sector that’s all about imagination, all about communication, I’d like to think that we can do this.

And what a voice we’d have if we cracked it…

DCMS’ 2011/12 Taking Part survey estimates that in that year over 41 million adults engaged with the arts, and 33 million attended three or more arts events.*

That compares to 16 million attendances (not attenders) racked up by the Football League and just over 12 million attendances in the Premier league reported by ESPN. So you see, there are a lot of us about. People who love the arts and put their hand in their pocket for them because they see their value. People whose lives are made better, in all sorts of ways, by the arts. People whose passion for the arts we already rely on, but who I think would love to get involved, tell their stories, make the case – if only we asked them.

What Next? is a sector-wide alliance of arts and cultural organisations – that’s one of its key strengths. Working mainly in music, I want as many musicians, promoters, composers, producers, venues, education organisations – anyone involved in music, in fact – as possible to be part of the conversations that happen on 29 April. According to DCMS, ‘other music’ – that’s everything bar jazz and classical music was the most popular artform listed, racking up 16 million adult attenders in 2011/12. Think of the numbers of people we in the music sector could mobilise if we joined in with What Next?…

So come on. Hit the What Next? Eventbrite page now. It’s Monday 29 April, from 11am – 4pm. It’ll cost you £25. In return, you get a day of being the most creative, lateral thinking, dynamic, networked, making a difference to us all version of you that you can be. What could be better? Or more important?

(The conference is just the start, and What Next? meetings are happening around the country, so if you can’t make it to the conference but want to be involved, email: elizabethjane100@gmail.com).

* If you’re interested in this kind of data do check out the National Campaign for the Arts’ UK Arts Index.

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“Led by Wendy Smithers, Co-Director of the hub, our second New Music Plus…UK 2 day training residential focussed on fundraising and income generation and was hosted by the newest arts centre in Europe and Northern Ireland’s flagship home for the arts, the MAC Belfast.

‘I really enjoyed the training sessions in Belfast, the Mac seemed a thriving bustle of activity and creativity; the product of a many years of hard campaigning and a great asset for the city. The sessions themselves were informative and very relevant to us, as the topic ‘fundraising’ is a key element of producing and a great skill to obtain. The guest speakers not only had insightful and useful fundraising techniques but also seemed extremely interesting characters with much previous experience in their sector. An all round successful trip!’”

Here’s an extract from Matthew’s blog about the event:-

By 2015 80% of mobile hand sets will be smart phones (the UK leads the market for mobile adoption and useage – current UK stats suggest UK penetration of smart phones is already 58% and tablets are at 19%).

Increasingly too people are buying through the mobile space. According to techcrunch in the UK alone consumers are spending £1000 a year. On black Friday (the day after thanksgiving) in 2010 6% of online transactions were from mobile sources. That had risen to 14% in 2011 and 25% in 2012. Even as far back as Nov 2010 the Digital Audiences report found that 53% of its sample had used the internet to engage with the arts and cultural sector in the last 12 months. It must be far higher now – no wonder Bristol Watershed have just ditched their paper brochure .

Chris Unitt as part of a series of blogs called arts analytics found that out of a sample of 100 arts organisations only 19 had mobile friendly sites. Not great on so many fronts – but as Chris points out – with so many of us now reading e mails on mobile devices not being able to click through almost defeats the point.

Another theme of the re-systems evening was the amount of data you are able to interrogate through a successful mobile presence –but if this NESTA report Counting what Counts is correct it’s another thing as a sector we’re not great at.

Here’s another interesting snippet from www.keepitusable.com – `consumers spend more time using tablets for media and entertainment whereas smart phones are predominantly being used for communication and task orientated activities’

Which linked into another theme from the evening. BYOD – almost bring your own bottle but not quite…. In this case were talking bring your own device.

As tablet penetration increases over time (and our familiarity with dual screening) – can we expect to find ourselves actively engaging with performances / events whilst in the audience through our mobile devices? The more commercially minded performer will encourage us to ‘buy more whilst we’re in the room’ – the more creative perhaps to engage / take part. This of course requires developing cross platform tools/apps or mobile sites which work across the platforms (Android currently has 68.4% of the market, Apple 19.4% and Others 12.2%)

Gallon’s final slide was both simple and insightful. Start with your vision. Know what you are trying to achieve and why. Know your user. Actively seek your users feedback. Think bigger than the marketing department (the digital audiences report has a benefits triangle which includes access, learning, experience, sharing and creation) and finally understand what technology best serves your purpose.

One things for sure – nobody can afford to avoid mobile.

So it was that I first of all found myself chairing a session as part of our work on New Music Plus…. Jo Beggs, Director of Development at the Manchester Partnership, Will Dutta from Chimera Productions, Lisa Meyer from Capsule/Supersonic and Andrew Ellis from Samizdat made the case for cross art form collaboration. As the people behind some of the most exciting music-led inter-disciplinary work in the country, they talked knowledgeably and honestly about why this work is important to them, and about how they make it work – artistically and financially. And having overcome an initial post-lunch slump, the audience were full of really interesting questions and comments. Great Friday afternoon stuff!

Next up, a panel put together by Sound and Music, featuring artist Lucas Abela (aka Justice Yeldman), The Wire’s Frances Morgan, Irene Revell from Electra and composer and academic Simon Hall. Called The Art of Listening I (somewhat ironically) found myself drifting in and out of listening to the panel presentations, as I thought about the ideas being discussed.

I was, however, really interested in what Simon Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire’s Head of Music Technology and a composer, had to say about listening though. His line of argument was that we’re as a country getting lazier in our listening, mainly as a result of the near constant feed of music and sound that many of us are exposed to everyday. He talked about entertainment and the need the mainstream music industry has to ‘feed the masses’. Picking up on a theme that had resonated across all the panel presentations, he laid some of the blame at technology’s door, implicating it in the industry’s tendency to pander to the masses, and describing “an aural suicide pact between those who produce (music) and those who consume (it)”. He made a really compelling link between the production and consumption of music and changes we’ve seen with food – from home produced meals to mass-produced convenience fodder. Sticking with the analogy, and employing a lovely turn of phrase – that really made me sit up and listen – he talked of our “aural obesity” and of us becoming “a nation of aural couch potatoes”.

To combat this “aural obesity” in his students, Simon prescribes an aural “5-a-day”, asking them to actively listen to five different instruments a day. And that’s actively listen, as in stop doing anything else, and just focus on the sounds created by that one instrument. Not listen to it in the background while ‘doing’ something else.

I’ve tried it today, and it’s a lovely thing to do. I did it by picking a random selection of tunes on my i-Tunes playlist, and it really improved my mood and my concentration and was a great excuse to really properly listen to some music at lunchtime instead of grazing (musically and lunch-wise) at my desk. And it made me think about the other 5-a-day idea I came across recently at the INTERROGATE! festival we programmed for Dartington – MindApples’ recommendation that we each compile a list of 5 things we can do each day that improve our mental health. Having tried Simon’s prescription, there’s absolutely no doubt that this active listening exercise has gone straight to the top of my wellbeing 5-a-day. Go on, give it a try!

For further reading see Julia Payne’s article for Guardian Culture Professionals here

In music, the producer ‘function’ feels like it’s still in its infancy. This is true even though I first worked with producers like Alex Poots and Como No’s Andy Wood at the Barbican in the mid ‘90s, and produced my first events some 18 years ago. Fast forward to 2012, and I’d say that vision, curiosity and sheer bloody mindedness are pretty much hardwired into the DNA of any producer. We’re not necessarily artists (although some of us, like Will Dutta, are but we’re passionate about making good work. We’re not promoters, but we’re just as audience focused. Freed of the constraints of working only in one context, we’re able to constantly explore new ways of creating and presenting the music that inspires us, and of facilitating new experiences for artists and audiences. Madeleine Keep from Tate Britain likens music producers to fashion designers, in that we can produce totally bespoke “haute couture” events or “make something beautiful for the high street”, that might tour nationally. As Kate Tyndall says in the Arts Council England and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation’s The Producers, “The producer leads in navigating a bold vision of an idea and how feasibly – and brilliantly – to deliver it… give it life and locate it in the world”. Cast your mind back to the music Underworld curated for the Olympics opening ceremony, the Liverpool Biennial launch produced by Samizdat, or to the insanely ambitious Africa Express, and you begin to see what she and Madeleine mean.
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Of course, these independent music producers didn’t make these projects happen alone; they worked collaboratively with (much larger) partner organisations. For music producers, collaboration has long been a positive choice; it opens up exciting new possibilities – for us, the artists we work with, audiences and – of course – the organisations we partner with. Between 2001-2010, the hub collaborated with fellow producers SoundUK to produce the Fertilizer festival. Neither company could have done it alone, we learnt a lot from each other, and continue to reap the rewards of the collaboration. As with any meaningful collaboration it’s had a long term impact on the thinking and practice of all concerned.

Working collaboratively means that both music producers and the arts organisations we work with are able to develop new areas of programming, more ambitious, bespokes event and new ways of working with or commissioning artists. As Ash Chandola from Swaraj Music says, “[Collaboration] develops me as a producer, it develops the artists I work with, and the organisations I work with. It raises the bar for all of us”.

In addition, these kinds of collaborations often develop new audiences. At the hub, partnerships with Summer Sundae Weekender and Dartington Arts around our Phrased & Confused music and spoken word programme have yielded 16 new commissions and a new audience of 6500+; we’ve all benefitted from this and been able to develop a more unique offer. On the same theme, one curator at a London gallery (who shall remain nameless!) tells me that the gallery’s collaborations with music producers bring in audiences who “are so much younger and better looking than our usual crowd”!

In recent months I’ve been working with colleagues at PRS for Music Foundation to select arts organisations to take part in New Music Plus…, a producer development programme we developed and have delivered jointly since 2009. Through the programme, arts organisations collaborate with a music producer for 18 months. The overwhelming interest we’ve had from arts organisations clearly suggests that in times of recession many venues see collaboration and new areas of programming as key to their future sustainability. The new audiences they generate have a positive impact on the bottom lines of everyone involved, via higher box office and secondary income, and even additional grant income.

In many ways, New Music Plus… feels like a coming of age for the producer role in the music sector. I find myself in the enviable position of being surrounded by amazing producers of all ages, of being able to develop ideas with them, share the learning we as the hub team have developed over time, and support another generation to develop the foundations of a sustainable career. Through this collaboration with the PRS for Music Foundation, I feel that we’re finally beginning to validate the role of music producer and articulate just what we as creative individuals bring to the table. And one thing’s for sure, there’s no way that would have happened if we weren’t working in partnership.

Details of the producers and arts organisations taking part in this latest UK-wide round of New Music Plus…. programme can be found here.

I’m not sure that ‘festival’ is the right noun for INTERROGATE!, including as it does a punch packing programme of performances, panel discussions, workshops, children’s activities and all manner of exercise type stuff like early morning constitutionals and tai chi. It’s a great project to work on, conceived as a joint initiative by Dartington’s Director of Social Justice, Celia Atherton, and Director of Arts, David Francis.

It’s a real privilege to programme a festival like INTERROGATE! As we pieced together the programme earlier this year we had some incredibly interesting conversations with all sorts of committed, intelligent and inspiring people. People like: Andy Gibson from MindApples , which promotes a 5-a-day message for mental health; Antony Seldon from Wellington College, whose definition of a quality education is just about the most moving thing I’ve heard all year; David Randall , who created The Independent’s Happy List as an alternative to the Sunday Times’ Rich List, and Suzie Hayman , who amongst other things is the agony aunt at Woman magazine. And as we moved to the festival itself, those conversations continued, and we lost count of the number of times we had a “that’s exactly it!” moment. A particular highlight was the Sunday brunch session which featured vast piles of scrambled eggs, mounds of newspaper and gallons of coffee, and was the only time I’ve ever had to ask panellists not to talk with their mouths full! Anyhow, our speakers were a hugely committed and inspirational bunch, and it was a real pleasure to work with them all. You can find out more about them one and all here .

We also got to programme and support some amazing performances and other ‘happenings’. It was great to be able to welcome writers taking part in the Spread the Word and Phrased & Confused , which was led by Stuart Silver and Hugh Nankivell . Over the course of the weekend, they gave artistic responses to some of the panel discussions – on their own and as a group – and took part in the late night Cabaret, where their performance stopped the audience in its track with its intensity and simplicity. Just amazing. We were also really chuffed that we could once again programme the brilliant Natural Causes , who, apart from being truly excellent musicians, are brilliant at bringing out the inner child (optimist?) in everyone. And they are brilliant wordsmiths too.

And through the festival Dartington was also able to work with Phrased & Confused to co-commission three spoken word new commissions, from Emma Bennett , Julian Fox and Jason Singh . Emma’s piece, Slide Show Bird Show, elicited proper wet-your- pants, fall-off- your chair laughter. Julian’s piece, So Here I Am, was really charming pop concert meets book reading hybrid, bringing the holiday slide show bang up to date. And Jason’s piece, Trains, Dads and Spirituality, a beautiful, heart renderingly honest tale of trains, getting lost and finding yourself – played out in word, sound and beats.

By the time my train pulled out of Totnes station on Monday morning I was in just the state I expected to be… very tired, totally fired up.. and feeling very happy!

“NMP… was blue sky thinking made real.” (NMP… host organisation)

In 2009, the hub joined forces with the PRS for Music Foundation to initiate New Music Plus…, a development programme which aimed to strengthen leadership skills and cross art-form learning amongst organisations and independent producers keen to develop their approach to programming and building new audiences for new music.

Between 2009-2011, New Music Plus… supported two regional producer and ‘host’ organisation cohorts, one in London (2009/10) and the other in North West England (2010/11). These programmes had five key elements: producer training; producer mentoring, producer bursaries, co-production partnerships between producers and ‘host’ organisations, and cohort-wide Creative Circle learning and networking sessions.

At the end of 2011, we carried out some long term evaluation with 15 producers and 11 host organisations to assess NMP…’s sustained impact on participants. To do this we worked with Steve Taylor from We Work With Data, who peer reviewed our methodology and research analysis.

“NMP… developed me, it developed the artists I worked with on the co-production, and it developed my host organisation. It raised the bar for us all.” (NMP… London producer)

Our findings indicate that NMP… has had a sustained impact on participating producers and host organisations alike, in four key areas:

“I’m much more on it… It’s all a bit more in focus in terms of what to say yes to. Before I wasn’t too discerning… I question everything now. ‘What’s this going to do for me? Is it going to make any money? Will it develop me?’.” NMP… London producer

NMP… has clarified producers’ vision; they’re doing more ambitious, higher quality work and commissioning more new music, much of this powered by the wider NMP… network. As a result, producers have created an important new income stream, seen their audiences grow, and increased turnover and gross profit. NMP… has had an unequivocally positive impact on the producers’ business practice, increasing their resilience and financial sustainability in difficult economic times.

“NMP gave us a whole year of thinking how music could be integrated into the whole of our programming. Now it’s part of almost every public event and a key part of our future thinking – so forthcoming collections and exhibitions will have music as a key curatorial element. It’s also informing our family and schools programmes.” (NMP… host organisation)

As a result of NMP… most host organisations have retained their music programme – despite cuts to programming budgets. Even more positively, thanks to NMP… their music events are more ambitious and of higher quality, better integrated into their wider programme and now form a larger part of their strategic plans. Through their NMP… partnerships, host organisations have seen audience numbers for this work increase, along with numbers of new attenders. All host organisations plan more work with music producers and feel better equipped to do it.

We’re really pleased to see that NMP… has made a real difference to so many individuals and organisations. We learned a lot too; it was incredibly inspiring to work with such diverse, creative individuals and teams, and we’re definitely creatively renewed and wiser for having done so.

If you’d like to get inside the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the impact NMP… has had you can read the New Music Plus long term impact evaluation executive summary.

We’re looking forward to applying everything that we’ve learned over the past three years to a national New Music Plus… programme. With our partners at the PRS for Music Foundation we’re hard at work on this, and hope to go live with this later this year. If you’d like to stay in touch with these plans, you can sign up for our newsletter, or follow me on twitter.

In his budget statement the Chancellor said, “From next year, anyone seeking to claim more than £50,000 of these reliefs in any one year will have a cap set at 25 per cent of their income”. In essence, the changes mean that from April 2013, the maximum tax relief that major philanthropists will be able to claim is £50,000 per year. If they want to give more, they will not be able to claim tax relief on all of their donation, even if they are donating a large amount to, say, establish a foundation or an endowment.

These changes should surely be a concern for the arts sector, given the government’s insistence that philanthropy needs to play a larger part in the funding of arts activity. As philanthropist Vernon Ellis said on Radio 4′s The World This Weekend, this change is likely to result in a ‘double whammy’. Firstly, major philanthropists will simply feel able to do less, and so will do – and give – less to the arts. Secondly, this potentially creates a bigger strain on the public purse as the government will have to step in to plus this gap. Here the fear of course is that the government won’t do ‘step in’ in the case of the arts, meaning that we’ll end up with less private money coming into the sector AND less public subsidy.

What sense is there in capping this area of tax relief at a time when the government wants to ramp up philanthropic giving?

John Low, Chief Executive at Charities Aid Foundation, said of these changes, “Government can’t have a philanthropy agenda on the one hand and then introduce measures like this on the other. This change seems to run counter to the very idea of Big Society.”

Meanwhile, Gary Shortman, a partner at accountants UHY Hacker Young, said that the move “casts a huge shadow over large scale donations to charity by wealthy individuals…Very high earners, encouraged by the relief, often make substantial lump sum charitable donations that dwarf their income and that behaviour is now threatened”.

On TWTW, Vernon Ellis finished by saying that he thought there was still time to influence government policy on this, and that the Treasury would be open to discussions about this. So, as well as asking Vernon to speak up for us, perhaps the answer is for us all to club together, raise the requisite £200K and get ourselves a dinner invitation?

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