News Summary: 14th May 2010

May 14th, 2010 - 
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New Government Stuff

As Jeremy settles into his new job as Culture Secretary, our favourite arts blog gives him some advice, more HERE.

Charlotte Higgins speculates on how it will go HERE, and Alistair Smith in The Stage kicks off cuts speculation, more HERE.

TV

Singapore has been accused by the pay-television industry of breaching WTO rules and damaging its future as an international media hub by moving to force broadcasters to share content. More HERE.

Press

ABC figures for April are out, with Sundays HERE and dailies HERE.

Considering the election coverage HERE.

Architecture

A question for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, more HERE.

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Daily News Summary

Weekly email 25th March 2010

April 12th, 2010 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Budget Special

Despite their disingenuous hints that the arts budget might be ring-fenced, the Budget has revealed Labour’s plans to cut the culture budget substantially.  Ben Bradshaw has announced £60 million of cuts – sorry, efficiency savings – across the DCMS. The overall budget is frozen for a year – so effectively cut again – and the capital budget has been reduced by £300 million. More HERE

The Budget also announced a number of other measures:

A tax credit for the video games industry. We have long argued for some form of fiscal support for the industry, so we welcome the announcement. We note, in a completely unchurlish way of course, that Labour ruled this out in December, and this announcement will not be passed before the general election.  TIGA, the trade body for the industry, has welcomed Labour’s move but surprisingly not acknowledged our long campaign to get Labour to take the video games industry seriously HERE

A tax rise for every family in the country that still uses a landline. The phone tax has been confirmed and will cost the British public an extra £175 million per annum – including a £70 million levy on British business – and could drive 200,000 people off the internet. We have promised to scrap the phone tax, deregulate the market in order to stimulate investment and have ruled out adding extra charges to consumers to pay for superfast broadband rollout. Jeremy has pointed out that Gordon Brown’s phone tax will push 200,000 homes off the internet, more HERE

In contrast, we propose to fund rural broadband from the digital switchover element in the licence fee.

A Gift Aid forum has been set up and will recommend possible reforms in the autumn. We have already said we will reform Gift Aid, so that’s another idea nicked from us.

Streamlining DCMS bodies. Labour have said they will reduce advisory bodies by half; merge the Film Council and the British Film Institute; and merge the National Lottery Commission with the Gambling Commission.

Jeremy has blogged on the budget HERE

Creative Industries

Regional News

The Government is pressing on with IFNCs, today announcing preferred bidders in the three areas, HERE in an attempt to force them through whatever happens in the election, which is ridiculous as Jeremy points out HERE. Unfortunate, too, that the chair of the selection panel responsible for choosing the bidders has encouraged the bidders to plan for life without public funds on the day of their selection, more HERE

Film and television

The Government have responded to the House of Lords Select Committee report on the British Film and Television industries, full response HERE . Recommendations in the response include increasing the net rate of film tax relief for productions under £5m to 30 percent, and to make salaries of personnel employed on a production eligible for tax relief whether they are working in the UK or on location abroad, so long as the personnel are paid and taxed in the UK.

Film London an Screen South are merging, more HERE

Skillset

Skillset has published a report which suggests there is an “oversupply” in many general creative media roles, but serious skills shortages in areas like digital technology and multiplatform capability, broadcast engineering, business and commercial know-how, visual effects and craft-orientated jobs, more HERE.

Skillset has also announced a new Advanced Apprenticeship in Creative and Digital Media, funded by the London Development Agency to help London’s diverse communities enter the industry, with a view to supporting the range of media activities needed for the London 2012 games. We think this is a great idea, more HERE

And, in a very busy week for Skillset, they have also published guidelines for creative industry employers offering work placement schemes, more HERE

Television

Congratulations to Freesat who have reached the 1 million sales mark well ahead of target more HERE

Architecture

Jean Nouvel will design the 2010 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. As a Pritzker Prize winner and recipient of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, Jean Nouvel has won worldwide acclaim with magnificent structures including the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the extension of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, more HERE

Advertising

The Government is now the biggest advertiser in the UK, after spending £208m in 2009, according a league table published by Marketing, HERE. The COI increased its spending by 13% year on year, to outspend Procter & Gamble by nearly £53m. The figures also show that advertising spend by the top 100 advertisers fell by £854m, a 10% reduction on year on year. Hard-pressed sectors like financial services and car making recorded the biggest falls in ad spend.

Product Placement

The Government placed legislation on product placement before Parliament last week. The legislation will enact the changes that Ben Bradshaw announced on 9th February. Read the legislation HERE , explanatory memorandum HERE and Ben Bradshaw’s statement HERE.

The regulations include a requirement for broadcasters to flag up product placement to viewers in any programme which is made or commissioned by the broadcaster, while product placement will be signaled at the beginning and end of the programme and after any ad breaks it may contain.

Ofcom will now amend the Broadcasting Code to bring the changes into effect, but before they can do that, they are required to hold a public consultation. Ofcom anticipates that its consultation will be issued in June and will conclude at the end of the summer, with the revised Broadcasting Code being published in the autumn.

Design

The first national survey of the UK design industry since 2005, released today by the Design Council, shows UK design industry has grown since 2005, despite the recession. There are 232,000 designers, 29% more than in 2005 and earnings have increased by £3.4bn. The combined budget of in-house teams and fee income of freelances and consultancies is £15bn. Collectively in-house design team budgets are down 34% since 2005, but the number of in-house design teams in the UK has increased by 10% to 6,500 suggesting that employers are holding on to creative employees despite downward pressure on budgets.  More HERE.

Multi tasking Help for Heroes/ legal music buying corner!

With the election approaching here’s your chance to obtain a unique souvenir of parliament, and to help a very good cause at the same time.  MP4′s first full album ‘Cross Party’,  issued by Revolver Records and produced by Robin Millar (producer of Sade’s platinum classic album Diamond Life) is now available to buy, with any profits going to Help for Heroes.  Here’s how you can obtain your copy and help in other ways, HEREl.

Arts and Heritage

Culture

The great and the good of the cultural world got together today to launch the Culture for Capital Manifesto today at the British Museum. More HERE and HERE, and the publication can be found here, HERE.

Philanthropy

Arts and Business have launched a ‘ Private Sector Policy for the Arts’ this week, which has some very interesting ideas. A&B Chief Executive Colin Tweedy said ‘artistic successes of the last decade have been driven by the deeply interdependent nature of the arts economy. The healthy levels of public funding secured quality for the sector, allowing arts organisations to attract increasing visitor numbers (and earned income), which in turn has encouraged further private investment (sponsorship and philanthropy) thus enabling further growth and consolidation.  This three-legged tripod mixed economy model is under threat.  This policy is designed to reboot and rewire it’ more HERE

Arts Council

ACE has announced its final round of Sustain funding, in another list that overwhelming favours large, well known arts organisations from the Young Vic to English National Ballet. More HERE

Heritage

A sudden flurry of government activity on the heritage front, with the publication of their vision statement HERE and a new Planning Policy Statement (PPS – now number 5, replacing 15 and 16 – keep up at the back!) HERE.

The general view from the sector is that it is a big improvement, see English Heritage’s response, HERE and Heritage Alliance’s response, HERE.

The aspiration for joined up thinking across government is a good one, although the document is a very thin on how this will actually be achieved. There is also very little mention of plans to bring back the much vaunted, long postponed Heritage protection bill – with one reference down there on page 20/21 (depending on which version you have). So once again an all mouth and no trousers policy announcement from the Government, while we, in contrast, have committed to a heritage and museums bill in the first Parliament after the election.

The Historic Houses Association has responded HERE, calling on the government to make firm commitments to action.

Heritage Crafts

The Heritage Crafts Association has launched this week, to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. More HERE and a good article in the Guardian, HERE

Staffordshire Hoard

The Hoard has been saved for the nation following the pledge of £1,285,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund this week. Congratulations all round, more, and you can still donate to the ongoing conservation and research work into the hoard HERE

Libraries

The Government’s much delayed, much criticised libraries review has finally been published .  Again, most of the ideas are nicked from us. More HERE

Quite a lot of people are rude about it HERE while the Unison response HERE called on the government to go further, and set out clear guidelines on exactly what service local authorities are obliged to provide, which is exactly what we have suggested in our own proposals for a libraries charter.

The Society of Chief Librarians has launched their libraries manifesto this week, more HERE

Skills

Funding has been confirmed for a £13 million skills academy within the Royal Opera House Production Park in Thurrock more HERE although this would seem to suggest that Gordon Brown announced it a few weeks ago, and DCLG have only just confirmed the money, which is either very disorganised, or a bit worrying.

Missions Models Money

Has published a paper on a collaborative project between Opera North and the University of Leeds to develop DARE, a business model that uses resources differently, ‘helping to equip Opera North with the capacity to continuously innovate and grow artistically in an environment of huge opportunity and a climate of economic uncertainty.’ More HERE

Olympics

While the big news on the Olympics front this week was the launch of the official ticketing website, more HERE the cultural Olympiad announced their Film Nation: Shorts project which will give young film-makers the chance to get their work showcased at the Games, more HERE

BoJo’s Cultural Jobs corner

His Borisness is recruiting for cultural strategy and music education strategy roles, more HERE and HERE.

New Culture Forum

Martin Amis will be in conversation with NCF director Peter Whittle at the Royal Society of Arts on 7th April, discussing feminism and the sexual revolution, the themes raised in his latest book. More HERE

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

UK World Heritage Sites and grants from the HLF HERE

Promotion of the Government’s free theatre initiative HERE

14,000 have registered for the National Theatre entry pass HERE

No requirement for local authorities to provide performance data on museums and libraries to the MLA HERE

The Government deny there will be a cut to the NHMF budget this year HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Tom Bloxham, Radio Production in the North conference, Julian Lloyd Webber, Nominet, Beringea, South East Arts round table, Open House architecture debate, Anya Hindmarch’s pub, Bush Theatre.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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News Summary: 16th February 2010

February 16th, 2010 - 
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Radio

The BBC Trust has concluded its nine month in-depth study of Radio 2, whose terms of service licence state that it must appeal to audiences over the age of 35. BBC Trustee David Liddiment, who led the review, said:

“We’re aware of concerns about Radio 2 targeting a younger audience. The current average audience age of 50 is well within the station’s target audience, but the Trust is clear that this must not fall any further, and we would like to see Radio 2 work on its appeal to over 65 year-olds.”

Commercial radio companies have complained that the BBC has been unfairly crowding out its competitors by allowing Radio 2 to focus on a younger audience, pointing to research that shows the number of 15 to 34-year-olds tuning into the station has increased by 62 per cent since 1999, while listeners over the age of 65 have fallen. The switch in breakfast show line-up from a 71 year old Terry, to a 43 year old Chris has offered little reassurance that the trend is about to reverse.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of RadioCentre, which represents commercial stations, has said:

“We welcome the fact that the BBC Trust is calling for a greater contribution from Radio 2 to the delivery of the BBC’s public purposes, especially in peak times… Over the last decade, Radio 2 has shifted its programming policies – nobody has intervened and this has been disastrous for commercial radio’s heartland audience and for the plurality and diversity of the UK’s fragile radio ecology.”

More in The Guardian HERE and HERE; Independent  HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE. You can read the BBC Trust’s full review HERE.

Tech

Useful analysis of Google Buzz vs Facebook in The Times today HERE, where it’s argued:

‘It’s not that Mr Zuckerberg is still only 25 and naively arrogant that annoys Google, nor that his company has enticed swaths of senior Google talent. It’s that Facebook’s fast-growing dominance of the “social” internet threatens its rival’s entire business model. If it can sell advertisers access not just to what you’re thinking, but to where you are, who you’re with and what you plan to do, Facebook’s revenues from individually targeted “behavioural” advertising could increase exponentially. And it knows it.’

Background to the Google vs Facebook story can be found HERE; HERE; HERE and HERE.

 Art

The first British exhibition of paintings by the Oscar-winning Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins opens in London today. The 50 landscape and abstract paintings by actor, who has exhibited throughout the US, will be displayed at Gallery 27 in Mayfair, central London, until Saturday before moving to The Dome in Edinburgh for four days on 2 March. Hopkins began painting in 2002, paints every day in his Malibu studio and “takes his art very seriously”, according to exhibition promoter Jonathan Poole, who will play host at this evening’s launch as Sir Anthony is away filming. Five limited-edition prints will be available for purchase. More in the Guardian HERE; and Independent HERE.

Architecture

A plan to mark the entry points to Brick Lane with giant arches in the shape of hijabs has been condemned as offensive to Muslim women and a waste of £1.85m of public funds. Locals have said they risk ghettoising a community that considers itself tolerant and diverse. Tracey Emin, who lives just off Brick Lane, is one of a number of residents in the east London area who claim that Tower Hamlets council risks inflaming racial tension by trying to force the “hijab gates” – as they have become known – through without proper consultation. The Spitalfields Trust, which helped to save many of the historic Huguenot silk weavers’ houses that abut Brick Lane, has urged the council to abandon its “misconceived” idea. The council has extended the deadline for complaints to 22 February. More in the Guardian HERE.

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Weekend News Summary: 30th/ 31st January 2010

February 1st, 2010 - 
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Poetry

Ruth Padel – Oxford’s first female Professor of Poetry until a dirty-tricks scandal led her to resign only 9 days in – talks about sex, lies, poetry, and her ‘moment of lunacy’, in the The Times’ Saturday Review HERE. The Padel interview formed part of Saturday Review’s Poetry Special, which also ran pieces by The Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, on reading for Haiti and ‘the music of being human’ HERE; Christopher Reid, on his surprise Costa win for an ‘intimate expression of love and grief’ HERE; and former Laureate, Andrew Motion on disproving the contention that there is no audience for poetry; stimulating its teaching in schools and generally extending audience reach HERE. Motion talks of the success of The Poetry Archive (www.poetryarchive.org), which enjoys a regular monthly audience of a quarter of a million people, listening to about 1.25 million pages of poetry.

Theatre

The news just keeps getting better and better for the West End. Further to last week’s announcement of a record-breaking box for 2009 (see our coverage at the time HERE), Sir Cameron Mackintosh has announced his plans to use some of his £635m fortune to endow each of his seven London theatres with enough cash to ensure that their lifespans outlast his own. The lucky theatres now safely tucked under this super-sheltering wing are the Prince Edward; Prince of Wales; Novello; Queen’s; Gielgud; Wyndham’s and Noel Coward. More in The Sunday Times HERE.

Heritage

 

English Heritage received a last-minute appeal on Friday to save The Foundry – a bar, community radio station, and performance venue. The building has played a key part in the contemporary arts boom and features graffiti and murals by the likes of Banksy, Jake and Dino Chapman and Damian Hirst. Despite the protestations of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, developers plan to replace the building with a hotel. More HERE.

Following the bulldozing of the 1936 Art Deco Regal cinema in King’s Street, and fears that more that 20 others of Britain’s 1930’s cinemas could face a similar fate, David Trevor-Jones, chairman of the Cinema Theatre Association, has said:

‘We’re losing swathes and it’s a tragedy. We live in a world of corporations and cheap architecture, but these buildings take you to another place. They’re all about grandeur and supreme fantasy… I think cinemas are still undervalued; no town would willingly lose its Victorian theatre, but the same isn’t the case for iconic cinema buildings… They’re part of our social and cultural history, but they have no protection.’ More in the Independent on Sunday HERE.

 

Television

David Lister writes about this week’s recording of the South Bank Show Awards (which we covered at the time HERE) at which consensus set around accusing ITV of philistinism for axing The South Bank Show. ‘But if ITV now seems a lost cause on serious arts programming, I can’t say I always get a warm glow from the approach of the BBC or Channel 4’ voices The Independent HERE.

‘Godless liberals’ are beside themselves with horror as a result of an opinion poll suggesting Fox News is the most trusted news operation in America; 49% of Americans trust Fox. Great analysis of the success of ‘news-o-tainment’ in the Guardian HERE.

Rock films look set to take on TV talent shows, and what Peter Hook is calling their ‘singing prostitutes’. Ten films chronicling the lives of musicians have been released or gone into production in recent months, to include the stories of John Lennon, Ian Dury and Joe Meek so far. This week sees the release of Oil City Confidential, an account of Canvey Island pub-rockers, Dr Feelgood. The film’s director, Julien Temple, says ‘We want film to provoke questions… Why can’t we come up with this kind of passion anymore? Now it’s the blandest of the bland who reach whole new audiences on shows like the X-factor’. More in The Observer HERE.

Adam Crozier could get £15m if he successfully turns around the fortunes of ITV. He will get a basic salary just below the £800,000 of his predecessor, but his annual bonus has the potential to reach more than double that. The biggest incentive though takes the form of a parcel of shares he will be awarded on arrival, but will only be allowed to collect after two years at the helm, making 2014 and 2015 the key years in the plan. More in The Observer HERE and The Sunday Times HERE. Assessment of Crozier’s chances of success can be found in the Observer HERE and Sunday Times HERE; The option of an ITV pay-per-view in The Sunday Telegraph HERE; And The Observer cites the latest threat of an ITV break-up bid, posed by rebel shareholders HERE.

TalkTalk is to launch television and mobile services, informed not least by the rapid maturation trend in the fixed-line broadband market and the fact that TalkTalk’s rivals in the broadband market already have TV services; BT, Virgin Media and BSkyB all sell broadband and phone services in discounted bundles. TalkTalk is involved in Project Canvass, a BBC-led consortium preparing to launch an internet-connected TV set-top box before the end of the year. More in the FT Weekend HERE.

Film

Highlights include Pulp Fiction; The English Patient; Good Will Hunting; and The Queen – could it really now be the end for Miramax? The studio is credited with bringing arthouse to huge audiences, but now reports have it that it is to scrapped by Disney. Disney claims it is not closing the business entirely; it is still in possession of six unreleased films, including The Tempest, with Helen Mirren as Prospero. Co-founder Harvey Weinstein has responded by saying he and his brother would ‘love the opportunity’ to buy back the name – an amalgam of their parents, Miriam and Max. More HERE.

The first black Disney heroine is greeted as ‘an opportunity missed’ by The Observer HERE.

Digital media

We covered immediate reaction to the hyper-hyped launch of the iPad HERE. Come Saturday calm, and the latest tablet is in receipt of a positive, if somewhat muted, review in the FT Weekend, which concludes that it will find some degree of success, and help define the emerging media tablet market HERE. Elsewhere in the FT ‘charismatic returnee’ Steve Jobs is observed, to the deduction ‘if his record is anything to go by, consumers could yet find it hard to live without their iPads’ HERE. The potential trickle-down effect for apps companies is covered in The Sunday Times HERE.

With the iPad still two months away though, there remain many unanswered questions. For example, in relation to digital rights management (DRM), it is unclear whether Apple intends to add software which could render consumers unable to transfer content across devices; critics of DRM argue such restrictions prevent consumers ever really owning their books HERE. Yet might it be the case that as Apple usurp not only other major companies, but also consumer choice, their legions of fans will grow only more loyal still? Yes, says The Telegraph, which supposes Apple is taking over the world HERE, The Observer agrees, but fears this will be the realisation of an Orwellian nightmare HERE.

But can the iPad rescue newspapers from ‘oblivion’, in the words of the Guardian Editor in Chief? Absolutely not, responds The Observer HERE, citing the fact that, against industry losses of about $10bn last year, the newspaper US subscription and advertising revenue across all existing e-readers and ‘at a mighty optimistic stretch’, reached new circulation funds of only $325m a year, plus $150m in ads. The Observer is however much more optimistic about the potential of ‘a paywall nobody will notice’; which comes bundled with pay-tv packages HERE.

Media freedom

Standing against the ‘creeping’ culture of secrecy in Britain’s courts, Mr Justice Tugendhat revoked a privacy injunction obtained by John Terry, the England football captain, ruling that there were no grounds for a gagging order preventing the disclosure of an extramarital affair with a former team-mate’s girlfriend. The ‘super-injunction’ had been granted last week after Terry’s legal team used Human Rights Act legislation to argue the public had no right to know about his private life. The injunction has been criticised as the latest example of courts bringing in a backdoor privacy law at the expense of freedom of expression in the media. This weekend Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, said he hoped Terry’s case would discourage celebrities from making spurious attempts to gag the press. More in the Guardian HERE; Sunday Times HERE and HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

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Weekly email 19-11-09

November 19th, 2009 - 
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Here’s this weeks news:

See Ed’s latest LinkedIn question about the BBC and post a response, HERE. And join up to our group, post news and participate in discussions, HERE.

Digital Economy Bill

We hope you are as excited as we are for more news on the much vaunted Digital Economy Bill. We would have loved to bring you details of the bill itself, alas it’s not out yet, and we like you are waiting for Lord Mandelson’s press conference tomorrow.

Tory Stuff

Jeremy outlined the Conservative vision for the future of the National Lottery in a speech in Leeds on Monday. He unveiled a package of measures to increase the returns to the Lottery good causes by £186 million a year, including abolishing the National Lottery Commission and giving its regulatory functions to the Gambling Commission; banning all Lottery Distributors from having press, public relations and communications departments; introducing a cap of 5% on administration costs. Most importantly we will return the National Lottery to its original good causes of sport, arts, heritage and charities, significantly increasing the returns to arts and heritage.

Jeremy said: “Last year, the 7 main distributors spent £120m on admin costs – a staggering 11.4% of the £1.05bn they distributed. That is grotesque when charities, community groups and voluntary organisations are under such intense scrutiny from those very same lottery distributorsto get every penny possible out of administration and into delivery.” More HERE full speech HERE

Speaking at the LSE this week, Jeremy talked about our plans to help the private sector roll out broadband across the country and our opposition to the unfair broadband tax HERE.

A Bon Jovi quoting (Plan your future but do it in pencil) Jeremy also spoke at the Manchester Media Festival today, setting out our plans to transform the current bleak outlook for media, more HERE and HERE and further faint praise from Roy Greenslade HERE Jeremy is worth watching, according to the Daily Telegraph HERE. We agree, obviously.

Ed spoke at the NextGen09 conference on broadband, dark fibre and how our localism agenda will help local governments to get their area online. More HERE

Ed gave an interview to the Standard HERE

Creative Industries

Top-slicing

The Government’s plans for top-slicing are now as confusing as all their other plans. The Times reported that the BBC has seen off the plan HERE, while the ‘Government’ (in the shape of DCMS) reaffirmed to the FT that the proposals would go ahead (after the election) HERE.  The DCMS has issued a response to consultation on IFNCs indicating top-slicing will be delayed until 2012, HERE. Hilariously, they hid it away on their website HERE

Video Games

Tom Watson MP has been interviewed by Critical Gamer, where he talks about the games he likes, his Gamers’ Voice campaign, and Keith Vaz, more HERE

Modern Warfare 2 sales reach record levels, pulling in $310 million in the US and UK alone HERE outselling the entire music and video markets combined, although as commentators have pointed out, high earnings are generated by the high price of games on average (£37.85 was the average UK price for MW2) as opposed to around £8 for CDs and £10 for DVDs more has been posted on our LinkedIn group news page, HERE

It’s a landmark game: ‘a first-person shooter that plays as a tragedy, not a power fantasy’ according to this review in influential on-line journal Slate HERE

Film

The UK Film Council launched a public consultation on proposals to merge its Premiere, New Cinema and Development funds to create a £15million Film Production Fund with an emphasis on first and second time directors, as part of a major overhaul of the organisation following a £25million budget cut to help fund the Olympics. A new Innovation Fund will promote new business models and aims to ensure UK film’s transition into the digital age, more HERE

Please note the word “cut”, as in a “cut imposed by Labour”.

Architecture

John Sorrell the outgoing CABE chair singles out Asda and Tesco in an impassioned speech calling for high architectural standards in midst of recession. In his valedictory speech he hit out at the ‘poor’ quality of supermarket development, singling out planning proposals by both Asda and Tesco in Barnet and proposals for a Tesco in St Helens in Merseyside ‘for its lousy public space’. He called on supermarkets ‘to come up with an alternative development model’ more HERE . We are big fans of John, which is why we are bigging up his speech.

Broadband

Conservative-run Swindon Council is set to become the first town in the UK to offer completely free wi-fi access. In the first project of its kind it will provide a wireless network for business, residents and visitors to the borough. We wholeheartedly welcome this ground -breaking initiative more HERE

Meanwhile, Nordicity are working on a Digital Britain/Technology Strategy Board feasibility study to deliver high speed broadband to remote and rural communities around Lancashire using ‘white space’ technologies. This week Ofcom published a discussion document to explore the potential of this new technology to wirelessly link up different devices and offer enhanced broadband access in rural areas. It works by searching for unoccupied radio waves called white spaces between TV channels to transmit and receive wireless signals. HERE

BBC

The BBC Trust think Thought for the Day is fine as it is, more HERE

Meanwhile Jeremy talked about the future of the BBC, including salaries and bureaucratic waste in an interview in The Sunday Times HERE . This follows the revelations last week that 46 BBC managers receive salaries higher than that of the Prime Minister.

The Times reports today that the BBC will reveal the salaries that it pays to its star presenters for the first time, but will still withhold their names. The corporation will disclose in January that it pays a small group of its ‘top talent’ including presenters such as Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton, a total of more than £70 million a year. More HERE. We think this is a further step in the right direction, but still not far enough.

Jeremy has also completely dismisses the suggestion that any “deal” has been done with Rupert Murdoch, reminding Lord Mandelson that Labour had the support of the Sun at the last three general elections HERE

Lord Sugar doesn’t seem to have the best grasp of this politics lark as he suggests that Jeremy has bullied the BBC HERE.

ITV

The Board of ITV has announced the appointment of Archie Norman as Non Executive Chairman. He will take up the role in January 2010, when Michael Grade, Executive Chairman, stands down from the company and John Cresswell will become Interim Chief Executive. We think this is great news (obviously – Archie used to be a Tory MP) more HERE No doubt Ben Bradshaw would veto the appointment if he could.

Local Television

United for Local Television (ULTV) a coalition of local TV campaigners has attacked Ofcom’s proposal to appoint a band manager to control spectrum suitable for local TV, sending an open letter to chair Collette Bowman. ‘It is undeniable that asking prospective local TV service providers to attempt to negotiate spectrum access with an unregulated dominant band manager is the equivalent of asking David to wear a straightjacket to fight Goliath.’ More HERE

Google Books

Google Books is forced to ease its ironclad hold on copyright-protected books, HERE.

Listed Events

David Davies has published his review of free to air listed events, more HERE and the full report HERE and Government consultation on this here HERE

Arts and Heritage

Visual Art

Art Historian, former director of the National Gallery and current Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts has given this year’s Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture for the Public Understanding of History at Gresham College. It’s on the ‘The Institutionalisation of Art In Early Victorian England’ and you can read it HERE

The Holocaust (Stolen Art) Restitution Act, supported by the Shadow DCMS team, which allows museums to return art stolen during the World Wars comes into effect, HERE.

Charles Saatchi advises against becoming an artist, HERE.

More BoJo

For specific news on arts and culture in London and monthly updates on what the Mayor is doing in this area sign up here: HERE

Boris Johnson presented the Marsh Award for Public Sculpture at the Whitechapel Gallery this week HERE. This year’s award is shared between three new works and one restoration project. The main winner, Dream, is the creation of a Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and is constructed on the site of the disused Sutton Manor Colliery at St Helens, commissioned by former miners and St Helens Council as part of Channel 4’s Big Art Project more HERE

Boris’s office is also supporting the London Jazz Festival which runs until Sunday 22nd in venues across London more HERE

Aesthetics Row

Its is commonly know fact among philosophy students that philosophers like nothing better than a good slanging match, something that is equally true of critics. So we bring you a humdinger as Sunday Times art critic, Waldemar Januszczak, HERE attacks the latest book by philosopher Roger Scruton, Beauty, more HERE which examines the disappearance of the idea of beauty in modern art. Peter Whittle of the New Culture Forum says ‘in its sheer vileness [Januszczak’s review] manages to make you physically recoil from the paper in your hand.’ All of it makes Peter wonder: ‘Does he fear Scruton might have a point?’

Theatre

Alan Bennett’s gift for ringing up box-office success has the critics feeling giddy as The Habit of Art opens at the National HERE.

Leaner funding times could be good for the theatre argues Patrick Marmion HERE.

Stay sober, stay conscious and stay to the end – are these the only obligations theatre critics have? HERE and HERE

Arts and Business

Congratulations to the awards winners HERE The big news from the awards had nothing to do with any of the winners, it was the sudden announcement by the lady herself of the chair’s resignation. Helena Kennedy is leaving with immediate effect, one year into her second three year term, the rumour as reported in Simon Tait’s TaitMail: ‘she wanted to clear her decks for another big job, either with this government or the next one, but she keeps her own counsel and no-one has any idea what it is’.

In Parliament

The Queen’s speech, featuring the much vaunted Digital Economy Bill, HERE and a list of the thirteen bills, HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Royal Armouries Leeds, Tate Modern, Google, Akram Khan in a remarkable evening, more HERE at Sadlers Wells, Beyonce at the O2, POLIS at the LSE, Manchester Media Festival, Roundhay Park in Leeds, Five Live tour, Erik Huggers.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email: 29 October 2009

October 29th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

Museums and Heritage

Jeremy made a key note speech on heritage yesterday. He called for our national museums currently to have greater independence from Government, more HERE and the full text of his speech HERE.  He lambasted the Government’s record on heritage, emphasised our plans to increase Lottery funding, proposed the merger of English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund to save costs and promised a heritage bill if we win the next election.

Video Games

Ed’s enthusiasm for the video games sector is well documented. This week he set out what a Conservative government would do to give the games industry the ‘voice it deserves’. He urged the sector to think more widely than industry specific tax break and engage with our Shadow treasury team’s task force, headed by Sir James Dyson, which is looking at options for Government to provide effective support to venture capital. He also addressed skills, broadband and piracy issues. More HERE and full text of his speech HERE Labour Peer Lord Puttnam said: ‘If the Conservative get in next year, there’s a guy called Ed Vaizey who will be a minister, and he certainly takes the games industry seriously, and he’s made it his business to understand the games industry.’ HERE. ELSPA have just press released to say that they loved it, HERE

Creative Industries

Music Piracy U-turn

His Lordship Peter Mandelson has set a date for blocking filesharers’ internet connection at C&binet. The strategy will be officially set out in the government’s digital economy bill in late November and could come into force in April 2010, more HERE and HERE.

Jeremy has commented: “We seem to have a new policy on file sharing every time a Government Minister opens their mouth. We’ve had three changes in five months. Most recently, in August Lord Mandelson argued that waiting for 12 months before anything happened would be “too long”. Now they propose waiting 15 months. What’s changed? Its clear that the Government doesn’t know what to do and until the Bill is actually published no-one is any wiser as to how they will act.” More HERE

As yet there is no clarification on what the government intends to do about oversights in the original proposals, particularly internet access via mobile networks: our sources tell us that BIS are still ‘grappling’ around options, and plans seem to be changing on a daily/ weekly basis.

Google is to offer music downloads, with the four major labels all licensing their catalogues to the service which is expected to launch next week, more HERE.

Meanwhile the European Parliament is hammering out a final agreement on how member states should deal with file-sharing, more HERE

C&binet

His Lordship’s speech took place at C&binet, the lavish digital creative industries conference sponsored by DCMS. We hear the budget ran to the millions, so the catering was once again marvellous, but they couldn’t sell all the tickets and had to give some away for free. Make what you will of what they got up for three days in Hertfordshire, more HERE .  Naturally, we weren’t invited.

Ofcom Pay TV Review

The debate continues, with BSkyB and leading sports bodies pointing out the impact that Ofcom’s Pay TV Review remedies would have on incentives to invest in content, and specifically in sport, more HERE. However, as Enders analysis say: ‘as Sky forges ahead of its rival pay-TV operators so attention is turning to competition issues.’ Meanwhile Virgin Media and BT are arguing that BSkyB should not be allowed to use project Canvass, the joint video on demand project for Freeview and Freesat viewers as a loophole to avoid proposed regulation, more HERE

BBC

The BBC Trust today published the outcome of the review of BBC executive pay which they commissioned earlier this year, more HERE We think that if that number of people are suddenly superfluous to requirements it does beg the question: ‘what have they been busying themselves with until now?’ Jeremy said: ‘The BBC has missed an opportunity to prove it is in tune with the public mood over high salaries. Public anger was focused not just on the management itself but on the salaries paid to senior executives, more HERE

The BBC has welcomed the BBC Trust’s endorsement of a package of initiatives designed to strengthen the role of the BBC’s children’s output. This follows the Trust review at the start of this year which identified some areas for improvement more HERE

The BBC consider selling shows on a ‘global iPlayer’, HERE. We think this is a great idea.

Licensing

During last week’s Westminster Hall debate on licensing, the Government compromised on small venues licensing. More, and a good round up of the debate wit, in which Ed suggested that John Whittingdale discovered The Police, HERE

Architecture

There’s a good round up of policy developments, particularly ours, that are relevant to architects HERE

Film

HMV and Curzon have announced a new joint venture that could create a new national cinema chain, more HERE

The international competition for tax credits hots up, more HERE

The British Independent Film Awards have announced their 2009 nominations.  Congratulations to the three films financed by EM Media; Bronson, The Unloved and Bunny and the Bull that have been nominated. More HERE .

South West Screen is launching a new scheme with BBC Films and Bristol City Council, Skillset and NESTA. iFeatures represents a step up for microbudget filmmaking schemes more HERE

Culture and Heritage

Libraries

The delayed Library Service Modernisation Review now has a target publication date of the end of November, over a year after it was originally commissioned. More HERE

Twit of the week

Ben Bradshaw is busying himself trying to take the Boris ACE London Chair row to David Cameron, HERE. Has he nothing better to do? He also launched a cycling campaign this week.  No wonder DCMS policy is all over the place. Meanwhile Boris has written to Bradshaw to reaffirm that the selection process and subsequent nomination of Ms Wadley were completely transparent and followed the Nolan principles, more and Boris’ letter to him, HERE .

Cultural Debate

Ed is speaking at the Southwark on Culture Big Debate on19th November, chaired by Anna Fazackerley of Policy Exchange with Munira Mirza director of arts and culture for the Mayor of London, Diane Lees director-general, Imperial War Museum and a host of influential speakers more information, or register, HERE

Arts and Business

The October issue of the Arts Business Culture E-Digest focuses on aspects of learning and development – from master classes to case studies across London and Leeds and Birmingham, more HERE

Dance

What do a children’s choir, birdsong and a piper have in common? They’re all part of Rosemary Lee’s communal dance experience at Greenwich Borough Hall, where a cast of professional and non-professional dancers are encouraged to ‘soar, touch and find the sublime’, more HERE.

Where are all the women in dance? HERE.

Heritage

The Textiles Conservation Centre has a new website, HERE

Visual Art

Wild Thing at the Royal Academy punches above its weight, HERE.

Opera

English Touring Opera’s ‘double anniversary’ tour, Handelfest, celebrating 30 years of the ETO and 250 years since Handel died is under way. Happy Birthday ETO, more on the tour HERE

Theatre

Is it possible to film a play, make it compelling to watch, and downloadable? A new organisation, Digital Theatre, is doing exactly that. We think this is brilliant innovation and wish them every success. More HERE and HERE

A great example of not depending on subsidy in the theatre HERE

Interesting Pieces from Across the Pond

Seattle may have to close its library two days a week to balance the city budget, despite soaring popularity HERE Google and Obama, (a love story) HERE Has the arts world worked hard enough to dissect the true costs, benefits and implication of recent diversity efforts? HERE

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Falling numbers working on heritage matters at the DCMS HERE

Whilst spending is increasing on staff at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment HERE

Estimates for participation levels in music HERE

Grant in aid funding for English Heritage over the years HERE

Growth in the UK video games industry HERE

Total sales in the video games sector up 23% since 2007 HERE

Listed events review report expected shortly HERE

EDMs

EDM 2145 – BBC and the British National Party HERE

EDM 2128 – British National Party Appearance on Question Time HERE

Where We’ve Been and Who We’ve Seen

MLA, UK Film Council, London Games Conference, the Globe, London Games Conference and Best of British, Freesat, BBC, Universal Music, Enron at the Royal Court, This Is It, James Thiérrée’s Raoul at the Barbican, Nowhere Boy at the London Film Festival, St Peter’s, Wallingford, with the Churches Conservation Trust, Dennis Stevenson, Mark Thompson, Anthony d’Offay, NCVO, Ofcom, The Globe, National Trust.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email: 22 October 2009

October 22nd, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Tory Stuff

Media Policy

Jeremy has set out our media proposals in an interview with the FT this week. He said that we want to replace the BBC Trust and that we are looking at reopening the BBC Charter. He also said that we would scrap the Government’s proposed 50p a month tax on all telephone lines to fund superfast broadband and reverse Government plans to force the BBC to share the licence fee, more HERE.

Culture Policy

Ed spoke at the Culture is Right conference yesterday and set out our plans for the National Lottery and philanthropy, confirmed our commitment to free museums, set out our views on the Arts Council, heritage, the MLA, culture in education, highlighted significant proposals at a local level that have implications for the arts, and set out his vision for the cultural Olympiad. Read his full speech HERE and download the green paper on localism HERE the relevant proposals are in the executive summary and in detail on page 25.

Last night we held another Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network event, thank you to the Creative Coalition for hosting us. The turnout was fantastic, the view, phenomenal and apparently we’re now ‘in danger of becoming trendy’ according to the Standard, HERE.

Ed has posed a question on Linked In: What is the best way for an incoming government to address the issue of online piracy? You can join our network HERE, and respond to his question HERE.

Creative Industries

Broadband Tax

Government advisor Professor Cave agrees with us on there being no need for a broadband tax. Professor Cave, an economist, expressed his support for our proposal and called for more emphasis to be placed on drawing private investment into next-generation network development. More HERE.

BBC

The BBC Trust has rejected plans to open up the iPlayer to ITV and Channel 4 programmes, saying that the idea was ‘too complex’ to be allowed because it would mix programmes that carried advertising with the BBC’s advert-free shows – and it was not clear if the corporation would benefit as a result, more HERE. We think this is a backwards step, which demonstrates that the BBC Trust has once again mis-understood its role – the purpose of this plan was not to benefit the BBC but rather to share the benefits of public investment in the iPlayer with the commercial sector.

Philip Stephens of the FT has outlined a five set programme to save the BBC, HERE. First, show some humility, second, reduce the pay and benefits of top managers, and cut the number of those managers, and publish earnings of its talent; third, rebuild the quality of its journalism, fourth, think strategically about the space a publicly funded broadcaster should be occupying 10 years hence; finally and most importantly, rediscover the difference between ends and means.

Mark Thompson has defended the appearance Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP on Question Time this evening on the grounds of BBC impartiality, and argues that it would be up to Parliament to stop it, more HERE.

Music Piracy

70% of those surveyed in a YouGov poll on internet piracy said that someone suspected of illegal downloading should have a right to a trial in court before restrictions on internet use were imposed, with only 16% in favour of automatic curbs based on accusations by copyright holders such as musicians, more HERE.

In other old model / new model news this week, party chairman Eric Pickles is leading the Conservative party onto Spotify. Cheese and Pickles anyone? More HERE.

Licensing

Ed is at the licensing debate in Westminster Hall at this very moment. We think there should be a review which as we are sympathetic to the suggestion of exemptions for Venues with a capacity of 200 or less – it would support artists without undermining the power of local authorities to control noise levels and promote safety in their area. The Government has just announced a very similar sounding U-turn, more HERE and watch the debate live or recorded, HERE.

Creative Industries

Northwest Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the creative and digital industries in the region, has put together the ‘Fast Company Programme’ to help the industry’s leaders to realise the value of their business and access the private equity funding available to them, more HERE. It launches with a panel discussion at the start of November, more information and registration HERE.

Advertising

Tim Lefroy, Chief Executive of the Advertising Association has announced plans to create a foundation to rebuild trust in advertising. He warned: “Less than 15% of adults ‘generally trust advertising’ today. If current trends continue, for the first time ever, people who are against advertising, who want it more controlled and regulated will, in a few years outnumber those who are ‘for it’, who feel that our freedoms are well placed.” More HERE. We think the foundation is a great idea.

Design

The winner of the Prince Philip Designers Prize for 2009 is Andrew Ritchie’s Brompton bike, based on the ingenuity of its folding mechanism, its balance of functionality, durability and comfort, and a consistent 30-year commitment to refining the product and its 1,200 parts – many of which are unique to Brompton. The bike is wholly manufactured at the company’s factory in Brentford, sells in more than 30 countries, driving a successful business that has grown by 25% for the last three years.  The business still dedicates 50% of management resource to design and development to keep itself ahead of growing competition in the fast-evolving folding bicycle market. More HERE.

Watch a design documentary of 50 years of British innovation, HERE.

The Design Council has launched a national design challenge called ‘Design for Patient Dignity’, inviting designers to join forces with manufacturers, service providers and specialist contractors to help eliminate mixed sex accommodation and increase patient privacy and dignity in hospitals. One of the briefs includes redesigning the patient gown! More HERE.

Architecture

CABE and eight regional design review panels have joined together to create a national network of design review panels. This will provide all local planning authorities with access to independent practical design advice, which is great news, more HERE

Congratulations to Richard Rogers who won this year’s Stirling Prize for his Maggie’s Centre in London, more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Money Money Money

The Government appears to have found some money to fill the DCMS funding hole that came to light in the summer, HERE as last Friday they confirmed funding for the BFI National Film Centre, Stonehenge, the Tate Modern Extension and the British Museum’s conservation and exhibitions centre and the British Library’s newspaper archive, more HERE and HERE. It’s not at all clear to us where they have found this extra money. Nevertheless, if it is there, it is very welcome.

ACE

Speaking of money, Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey has argued: ‘The arts ought to be a key part of any civilised government’s mission,’ also speaking at Culture is Right, this week. He added: ‘I hope any government would not return to a Mills-ian view of the most efficient creation of wealth being the sole aim of any society. [Money for the arts] has an ultimate end that Ruskin knew was important to any society – the creation of beauty, and something that goes beyond the material and straight to who we are.’ HERE. We agree.

Cultural Olympiad

The Arts Council have announced the 12 winning projects for their Artists taking the lead programme, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Congratulations to the winners, full details HERE.

Heritage

English Heritage has launched the Heritage Counts 2009 website, HERE. This annual report on the state of the historic environment shows that heritage can have an impact on wider social issues such as people’s sense of well-being and community cohesion, and reveals that England’s heritage has had a bumper year with visitor numbers far higher than expected, more HERE.

Libraries

Tim Godfray at the Booksellers Association has written a: ‘blistering private reply to Hodge’s proposal, and in public he talks about a “growing sense of concern” and regards libraries selling books as “unfair competition”—not least because bookshops pay taxes that support libraries… Rather than flying ill-conceived and frankly preposterous suggestions, Margaret Hodge would be better off speeding up the publication of the Charteris Report into the library service in the Wirral, and on speeding the publication of her own long-delayed Department for Culture, Media & Sport library review.’ Ouch! More HERE.

Meanwhile CILIP has weighed in with the biting headline: ‘Hot news! Absolutely nothing is happening!’ more HERE.

Effects of the recession

The Art Fund has carried out its second nationwide survey of museums and galleries which shows that more people are visiting museums across the UK and that they are spending more in the shops and cafes – a positive sign. But income from other sources, especially public funding, investments and corporate sponsorship, is falling, more HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Falling Lottery funding for the arts, sports and heritage HERE

But steady lottery sales over the past few years HERE

The increasing cost of visiting English Heritage properties HERE

Buildings added, buildings removed from the English Heritage ‘Buildings At Risk’ register HERE

Estimates of the financial contribution of the heritage sector HERE

The impact of digital switchover on provision of ITV 3 and 4 in Wales HERE

The proposal for top-slicing the license fee and the impact on ITV HERE

And Finally

To mark the end of its popular P G Wodehouse exhibition, Heywood Hill the bookshop has come up with a mouth-watering free competition for anyone with an appetite for Wilton’s, Berry Bros, Heywood Hill and/ or Nicholas Soames! Watch Plum Idol HERE featuring among others Stephen Fry, Santa Montefiore and Henry Blofeld (and including Debo Devonshire’s first official appearance on You Tube) and then vote for your favourite – there is a corker of a prize for one lucky winner:

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

TIGA, London Film Festival screenings of Bright Star and An Education, CBI Tourism Alliance Breakfast, the Roundhouse, Culture is Right, ITV, Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network at the Paramount, Editorial Intelligence on the future of the arts, more HERE, Alan Davey, CBI London Annual Dinner, Cartoon Museum, Moctezuma exhibition at the British Museum, Churches Conservation Trust, Channel 4, Enron at the Royal Court Theatre, TimeWarner, Connect.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email: 10 September 2009

September 10th, 2009 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Creative Industries

Digital Piracy Round-Up

A new grouping, the ‘Creative Coalition Campaign’, has been launched to support tougher measures on on-line piracy. Its members include the Musicians Union, the National Union of Journalists, the Premier League, the Professional Footballers Association, the Publishers Association, Equity and the Motion Picture Association full list HERE. They have issued a position statement in response to the Government’s proposals HERE Several members of the group wrote to The Times recently, highlighting that ‘as many as 800,000 people work in the creative sector, and with piracy depriving business of up to 20 per cent of their revenues every year, many workers will be at serious risk if action is not taken.’ Read the full letter HERE.

And new campaign, ‘Connected to British Film and TV’ aims to show people how the money they spend on cinema tickets, downloads and DVDs helps pay for new shows and films to be made has launched this week, supported by actors Nick Moran, Noel Clarke and Tamzin Outhwaite. More HERE.

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Times, members of the Featured Artists Coalition take a another view. Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien says ‘File sharing is like a sample, like taping your mate’s music… What’s going on is a huge paradigm shift’. Dave Rowntree, drummer with Blur and Labour parliamentary candidate says ‘the fact that file sharing goes on, and is as popular as it is, is an incredibly positive thing for the music industry.’ While Fran Healy, lead singer with Travis suggest that file sharers are ‘unsung word-of-mouthers who spread the word and create tipping point situations for a greedy record business that has got so fat it is unable to see its own footsoldiers’ More HERE.

In a speech at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy has argued that the industry needs to play its part by providing attractive alternatives to illegal films. He said: ‘Tackling supply isn’t enough. We need to tackle demand as well.’ More HERE.

The government’s dizzying statistic that over seven million Brits are involved in online piracy has been challenged in this blog HERE.

BBC

Jeremy has said that Mark Thompson’s successor as Director-General of the BBC should be paid no more than the Prime Minister. In an interview with The Times he said: ‘Under a Conservative government, we would expect a vacancy for the job to be advertised at a much more realistic salary – and we should look at the Prime Minister’s salary as a benchmark.’ More HERE.

The Chairman of the BBC Trust has published an open letter to the licence fee payers reinforcing the BBC’s commitment to its public purposes and announcing a thorough strategic review to ensure that the BBC is in the right shape to deliver these purposes in the digital future. More HERE We’re delighted the BBC has acknowledged that it needs to address issues surrounding its scope and purposes, and hope that the review will be thorough and objective.

Orange / T Mobile deal

Orange and T-Mobile have announced plans to merge, which would create the UK’s largest mobile phone company with 37 per cent market share. Consumer groups are calling on the OFT to investigate the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Orange announced this week, amid concerns that the creative of the UK’s largest mobile phone operator could damage competition. More HERE.

Google books

Google is to make concessions to European publishers and authors in an effort to stem a rising tide of anger over the landmark settlement. It has agreed to have two non-US representatives on the governing board of the registry that will administer the settlement, according to a letter sent to 16 European Union publisher’s representatives at the weekend. More HERE.

Meanwhile France is the latest European country to file objections to the deal. More HERE.

Mercury Music Prize

Congratulations to Speech Debelle on winning the Mercury Music Prize. She is the first woman to win in seven years. More HERE.

Film

Congratulations to the National Film and Television School (NFTS) which has been awarded a Skillset accreditation for its MA in Animation Direction following significant praise from industry assessors. More HERE.

Advertising

In the “no, really, we’re not kidding” section, we bring you the quite genuine news that the Lib Dems have launched a campaign against airbrushing in advertising, encouraging people to report adverts featuring heavily airbrushed images of women to advertising watchdogs. More HERE.

Meanwhile a report from the British Medical Association has called for a total ban on alcohol advertising, to tackle the ‘soaring cost of alcohol related harm’ more HERE.  We agree with the Advertising Association that this report is poorly drafted, shows a misunderstanding of the role of advertising, and we do not believe that a blanket ban on alcohol advertising is the right way to address this problem. More towards the bottom of this article HERE. The ASA ‘s latest survey, also published this week, shows that 99% of alcohol adverts are within the rules, which contrary to the BMA’s report, are not voluntary. More HERE.

Arts and Heritage

UK City of Culture

The final report of the working group for the UK City of Culture project was published this week. It recommends that the first year of UK City of Culture should be 2013, as this will ‘represent a symbolic handover from the end of the Cultural Oympiad and could form part of the Olympic Games legacy’ and lays out criteria for potential bid cities – full list of cities, which includes, er, ‘the countryside’, in the running HERE download the full report HERE.

Music

Ed Balls has launching a Year of Music HERE calling on schools and local authorities to make a concerted effort to get more young people into music, so that by 2011 over 2 million primary school pupils will have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, DCSF say they have invested £330 million in music, both inside and outside of the classroom HERE which is more than three times as much as they say they have invested in sport, if you think about it.

Museums

The Natural History Museum will open a new Darwin Centre that invites visitors to chat to scientists, take part in interactive displays and even handle some of the exhibits. The new eight storey building opens next week and include a ‘climate change’ wall that shows the effects of global warming around the world and a number of multimedia experiences to allow visitors to see scientists on expedition of marvel at the latest research on curing malaria. More HERE. We look forward to the opening next week.

Open House

Open House is coming up next weekend – the 19th and 20th of September with a record number of buildings participating. Some buildings have a specific focus on art – 20 Dalston Lane is an empty shop, being used as a temporary arts space – over the weekend there will be conversations with Landscape Architect Jo Gibbons from J&L Gibbons, and artist and architect Liza Fior , while on the Greenwich Peninsula: Site there are permanent and temporary public art including Slice of Reality and Antony Gormley’s Quantum Cloud, More HERE.

Churches

The National Churches Trust (Ed’s a vice-president) is organising sponsored bike and walks between churches this weekend, to raise funds to maintain the fabric of the 40,000 churches in the UK – the cost for the next five years is estimated to be £1 billion. More HERE with suggested walks HERE, HERE and HERE.

Booker Prize

Congratulations to the authors and their publishers that have made the Booker Prize short list for this year: A S Byatt, The Children’s Book (Chatto), J M Coetzee Summertime (Harvill Secker), Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Cape), Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate), Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown), Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Virago). More HERE.

Arts

The BBC has appointed Will Gompertz to the newly-created Arts Editor role. He is currently Director of Tate Media at the Tate. More HERE. We are Will fans and think this is a great appointment.

ACE

Arts Council England have announced their new national leadership team as part of their ongoing restructure. Congratulations to those appointed, more HERE.

Libraries

Professional body CILIP highlights the pressing need to be clear on what constitutes a high-quality public library service. England has had not public library standards since 2008 and the Government do not want to re-introduce them more HERE. Our proposals for a Library Charter, as outlined HERE will set minimum standards for libraries.

Architecture

Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps has outlined a new policy initiative that aims to encourage local people to get more involved in the design of their neighbourhoods. More HERE.

And finally

Ed’s with the band, apparently, HERE when he is not being photographed by Rankin, HERE.

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

The Design Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, The Crafts Council, the Big Lottery Fund, Three.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email: 16 July 2009

July 16th, 2009 - 
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