The Arts Council England's regional museums programme in total will invest less than the fRACS acquisition budget...

摘要

Public cash matters. Our Olympians reached the top thanks to state support. Being the best in the arts is no different. Not Tate Modern, not The Sage Gateshead, not even the Lowry; none of them were guaranteed to succeed. In the decade to 2007, the government estimated two million new jobs and more than ￡16bn of exports were generated by the creative industries. So much of our best talent started in publicly funded projects. The failure of The Public in West Bromwich, that went into administration before it even opened, gave MPs an easy target at which to aim before cuts were demanded of the arts. Old news and unrepresentative, it nevertheless was all they needed to justify their axe.