The Arts hold a contentious place in the political sphere of British society due to the perception of its elitist nature and assumed impracticality of funding to this sector. Yet after years of Conservative austerity, repeated budget cuts to institutes like museums and galleries mean that the treatment of the Arts will be paramount to the sustainability of galleries and museums across the country in the aftermath of the election. This ensures that any ‘Art and Cultural’ policies of a potential Government could be vital in securing the substantial proportion of voters involved in the sector.
Yet despite the apparent urgency of the need for significant funding to ensure British cultural revival, the debates centred around the General election hold a prominent Art-based hole in their discussions. The absence of this sector is particularly notable within both the manifestos of Reform UK and the SNP. Whilst both parties allude towards the financing of the sector, with SNP against any spending cuts and Reform UK advocating for a slash on this ‘bureaucratic’ sectors, neither manifesto exhibits an actual policy on their treatment of the Arts.
Initially Reform UK’s absence of Art funding can be easily reasoned with, as their searing indictment of ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘the Woke-ist agenda’ (highlighted on the very first page of their manifesto) acts in contradiction to the recent work of many cultural organisations. The complete absence of an overarching desire to offer a truly ‘British’ cultural sector can prove baffling though, especially in consideration of Farage’s repeated cries of a desire for a revamped identity and values.
Furthermore, whilst SNP’s manifesto offers some vague promises of ‘supporting and boosting’ the culture sector and creative industries, their manifesto similarly provided little indication of any genuine change that the party wished to enact. Whilst I initially attributed this absence to just a desire for different policies being pushed by both parties, notably with SNP outlining that the intensification of the independence debate was supreme in the party policies, I think the disregard for the Arts is a worrying trend across the entire election.
Whilst Reform and SNP can be outlined in their more blatant neglect of the cultural sector, their manifestos are only indicative of the treatment of the cultural sector within Westminster. Numerous other political parties omitted a real tackling of the Arts in their manifestos, specifically around a sustainable and concrete funding route of the sector. Namely, whilst Labour published a report entirely dedicated to the growth of the creative sector in March 2024, Michael Delgado (Apollo Magazine) outlines that that numerous key pledges from their report failed to make the cut into the party’s manifesto, including the creation of a cultural infrastructure map to link regional art institutes.
Similarly, whilst the Conservatives do emphasis a continued reliance on philanthropy and private sectors to fund the Arts, Ben Walmsley (Conversation Magazine) notes that on their 80-page manifesto, the words ‘Art’ and ‘Culture’ appear only once. As a Bachelor of Arts Undergraduate, the manifestos emerging from the two major parties appear to me indicative of continuing undervalue of the Arts within British society. The increasing advertisement for a solely STEM-centred education under the Conservative Government has a devastating impact on both the financial treatment of the Arts as well as the perceptions around the field.
The recent Westminster indictment of many BA undergraduate programmes as ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees merely outlines the increasingly poor career associations with Arts and Culture sector as well as reasoning behind the disproportionate underfunding of the field. This attitude towards to the Arts is one that could prove fatal to not only the survival of many degree programmes (as 2024 saw 14 universities implementing redundancy plans that would solely impact Arts or creative degrees) but also the long-term sustainability of the field entirely.
Whilst Labour’s Shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire does indicate a genuine interest in a revival of the Arts industry, I can’t help but agree with Delgado that their manifesto indicates “Labour does not see it as a priority” to their potential government. The phrase ‘not a priority’ is one that has plagued those within Arts and Culture sectors for decades, yet it is not a position I hold much optimism of changing.
It could be suggested that the SNP and Reform UK are outliers in their neglect of the Arts within their manifestos, I believe that they are more blatant indications of the continuing mistreatment of the Arts within UK politics. The poor public perception of the creative field perpetuates their neglectful treatment within mainstream politics, explaining why the SNP and Reform UK not only ignore but are allowed to ignore this major sector of the UK. Ultimately, a true revival of Arts and Culture are out of grasp unless political parties exhibit that they are not just merely ‘not a priority’ within the political landscape.
