Heritage « Culture Politick

Weekly email: 22nd April 2010

April 27th, 2010 -

Tags:

Arts, BBC, Broadband, Film, Google, Heritage, media, Music, Paid content, Publishing, Theatre, Video Games

Here is this week’s news:

Election Stuff

Gary Barlow of Take That joined David Cameron at a school in Nantwich, Cheshire, to launch our School Stars initiative to celebrate musical kids, more HERE. The new competition will encourage musical achievement among young people and is designed to provide those who participate with a unique, fun and exciting experience. Gary Barlow will be involved in judging the final stages of the competition and the first prize is a chance to record a song with him. The BPI, UK Music and Global Radio have backed our plans, full details HERE

Tonight’s Prime Minsterial debate is at the Arnolfini, possible the only time the arts will really take, or provide, the centre stage during this election, more HERE.

Creative Industries

Media

Jeremy has been interviewed by Dow Jones HERE and discussed our plans to ease media regulations.

Jeremy also took part in a manifesto debate chaired by Michael White with Douglas Alexander and Danny Alexander which covered the BBC and digital economy bill, amongst other things, more HERE.

Google

The Labour Government head’s Google’s European censorship list, more HERE

While the Information commissioner joins Germany, Canada and Spain in calling on Google to protect its users better, more HERE.

BBC

Newly disclosed BBC expenses show BBC technology boss Erik Huggers has had yet another expensive drive, clocking up £646.79 for a car and driver on a trip to Korea, while BBC Worldwide spent more that £6,000 bringing director general Mike Thompson back from Australia. In total BBC executives claimed expenses totalling £173,527.04 from September to December last year, more HERE.

Broadband

Orange has done a deal with BT to piggy back onto BT’s network, and pass their own fixed-line infrastructure to BT. Orange will go head to head with market leaders BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, which could sharply increase competition, and drive down consumer charges, more HERE

Video Games

Ed has reassured the video games sector that we support tax breaks more HERE

Skillset’s computer games manager Saint John Walker joined a panel of industry experts for an online Q&A session about the representation of women in the computer games industry on Guardian Careers on Tuesday, more HERE.

Paid content

DMCT, the group that owns the Mail newspapers appear determined to follow a different path to the Time Online’s paid route, more HERE

Publishing

In the era of the iPad and the Kindle some independent innovative publishers are finding a profitable niche for the old-fashioned book, in the FT more HERE.

A thoughtful piece on the iPad’s impact on publishing and the fight for market share and price setting in the digital era, in the New Yorker, HERE.

Music

Paolo Nutini, Dizzie Rascal and an album about cricket have all be nominated for Ivor Novello Awards, more HERE.

Film

The future of MGM is in doubt, as the producers of James Bond put their next production on hold, more HERE.

The founders of Miramax, the Weinstein brothers, are in talks with Disney to buy it back, more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Arts

Ed was on BBC Midlands Today on Tuesday talking about our arts policies, although for reasons that are unclear, this gem is not on the iPlayer.

This was ahead of an election debate at the Birmingham Hippodrome on arts policies with former Labour creative industries minister Sion Simon, Liberal Democrat Lord Clement Jones and Ed himself, more HERE

Orchestras count the cost of the volcano calamity, more HERE

Heritage

The National Churches Trust has launched its online survey, aimed at people with responsibility for looking after their church building HERE

Theatre

Where were the skewerings of new Labour in Posh? HERE.

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Still on the stump, lovely weather for it.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email

Weekly email: 8th April 2010

April 12th, 2010 -

No Comments

Tags:

Digital Economy Bill, Heritage, media, Social Networking, Theatre, Visual Art

Here is this week’s news:

General Election

The Prime Minister has called a general election for May 6^th. Our key policies are available at HERE. We wouldn’t presume to tell you who to vote for, but do please vote.

Creative Industries

Digital Economy Bill

The Bill finally got its second reading on the very day the election was called. Second Reading debate HERE and Committee stage HERE

It has been granted Royal Assent this afternoon.

Jeremy called the Bill a ‘weak, dithering and incompetent attempt to breathe life into Britain’s digital economy’ and pointed out that as Reagan once said, the trouble with this government is that it always thinks: ‘If it moves, tax it, If it keeps moving regulate it, And if it stops moving, subsidise it.’

We gained significant concessions, forcing the Government to scrap their unfair broadband tax, ill through out plans for regional news, and the orphan works clause which would have penalised photographers HERE

The actual bill and explanatory notes on it can be found HERE

Plenty of media coverage, with a good round up of what the final bill will and won’t do in the Guardian, HERE with a clause by clause guide HERE and coverage in the Telegraph HERE

Media

Speaking at a National Press Club event at George Washington University Rupert Murdoch hailed the iPad as the potential saviour of newspapers but said that the news industry must stand up for itself and charge for content. HERE

Social Networking

AOL has said it will sell or close Bebo, as the social networking market rationalises to a few big players, more HERE

Arts and Heritage

Regeneration

There is a good story on the relationship between arts centres and social and economic regeneration in the New York Times, HERE

Heritage

A new textile conservation centre is to be established at the University of Glasgow, more HERE

Literacy

The National Literacy Trust is campaigning for the public to Vote for Literacy to raise awareness that literacy is an issue today and has a massive impact on a wide range of outcomes: One in six adults in the UK has lower literacy than that expected of an 11-year-old? More, and pledge your support <HERE.

The EU Charter of Human Rights

Will be performed as an 80 minute epic poem alongside music, dance and artistic interpretation of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Conference in December. The Vienna based EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has to designate a poet for the job: ‘The original call for poets stipulated that the piece would be written only in English, “the literary language,” a display of Anglo snobbery and the type of thing that makes those proud Europeans who speak other languages really huffy’ We couldn’t possible comment, more HERE

BoJo’s HuBu

Anish Kapoor, working with Cecil Belmont, ‘the world’s greatest engineer’ has been chosen to create a landmark sculpture for 2012, more HERE. Well done Boris for commissioning this sculpture, which has already been nicknamed the Hubble Bubble, or HuBu.

On the downside, there’s a slideshow HERE of bad art meeting worse politics, the world’s worst public statues!

Theatre

As we are gripped by Lord Lloyd Webber’s search for Toto, The Times considers what it is to be a dog on the stage, more HERE

Democracy

Jonathan Jones argues that democracy produces the best art HERE

In Parliament

The Digital Economy Bill had its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday HERE and 3^rd reading and committee stage all rolled in to one on Wednesday HERE and has now been granted its Royal Assent.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has published its report: Future for local and regional media HERE

The Lords held a debate on the British Film and Television Industries on Tuesday, full debate HERE

The Culture Media and Sport Committee has published its report: Press standards, privacy and libel: Press Complaints Commission’s Response to the Committee’s Second Report of Session 2009-10 HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Mainly in the Commons, for the Digital Economy Bill, State of Independence Conference, York Museums, York Theatre Royal, York Minster Glaziers workshop, the National Centre for Early Music, Dr Delma Tomlin, Rowntree Park, Eric Musgrave of the UK Fashion and Textiles association.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email

Weekly email: 1st April 2010

April 12th, 2010 -

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Tags:

Advertising, Broadband, Channel 4, Dance, Fashion, Film, Heritage, Libraries, Lottery, Museums, Music, Ofcom, Radio, tv, Video Games, Visual Art, writing

We’d like to wish all our readers a very Happy Easter.

Today is April Fool’s day.

Tory Stuff

Ed spoke at the LGA Culture Tourism and Sport conference in Gateshead yesterday. Read his speech, and about the conference more widely, on their blog, including ACE chief executive Alan Davey who has been making the case for maintaining funding at local government level, HERE

Creative Industries

Ofcom – busy, busy, busy!

Ofcom – Pay TV

Ofcom has published the conclusion of its investigation into the pay TV market and concludes that: Sky must offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 to other retailers at a wholesale price set by Ofcom; give conditional approval to Sky and Arqiva’s request to offer pay TV services on digital terrestrial TV (Picnic), dependent on a wholesale deal; it will refer concerns regarding the sale and distribution of film rights to the Competition Commission; and that Sky must offer wholesale HD versions of Sky Sports 1 and 2. More HERE and analysis on Media Guardian HERE .

BT does not think that Ofcom has gone far enough, saying : ‘Despite being a step in the right direction, it is disappointing that Ofcom seem to have compromised. This is because their remedy does not apply to all Sky Sports Channels, there’s also no price for HD channels, they’ve set a price bundle of Sky Sports 1 and 2 at a higher rate than they suggested and they’ve left out the issue of premium movies.’

Sky have confirmed that they will appeal.

Ofcom – broadband

Ofcom has said that ISPs must do a better job of telling customers about broadband speeds, or face stiffer regulation, Full research HERE more HERE

Ofcom – media literacy

Ofcom’s report into media children’s media literacy suggests that a quarter of UK internet users aged eight to 12 have profiles on Facebook, Bebo or MySpace last year, despite the lowest minimum age set on any of the sites is 13, and band news for the music industry, finding that 44% of children between 12 and 15 thought downloading shared copies of films and music for free should not be illegal, more HERE Read the full report HERE

Ofcom – termination rates

Ofcom has published plans to reduce mobile termination rates (MTRs) – the charges operators made to connect calls to each others’ networks – to benefit UK consumers.

They will be consulting on these proposals until 23 June, more HERE

Ofcom – CRR

Ofcom has published the submission it made to the Competition Commission on CRR. It states that “Ofcom does not believe that retaining the undertakings in their current form is appropriate” HERE

Broadband

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, Julius Genachowski submitted a new “100 Squared” Nation Broadband Plan to Congress, full plan HERE, he raised the bar to an unprecedented height by proposing that that a 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100M bps (bits per second) Internet, and upload speeds of at least 50 Mbps by 2020, more HERE

Virgin are using innovative methods to get broadband to rural areas, more HERE

Press Complaints Commission

Following the extension of the PCC’s remit to blogs , Rod Liddle’s Spectator blog is the first to have a complaint upheld, more HERE

Video Games

Skillset have pointed out, rightly, that while the promise of tax breaks are an important step for the sector, the need to tackle the skills gap is as, if not more, important. More HERE.

Channel 4

The Culture Media and Sport Select Committee has published a report on Channel 4, more: HERE

It calls for increased over-sight of the channel if its PSB remit is extended to include other platforms including E4, More4, Film4 and online services. More in the Times,

HERE and from PA, HERE

Channel 4 is to double its budget for arts funding, under a new arts board chaired by its director of television and content Kevin Lygo. Tabitha Jackson has been appointed as commissioning editor art, more HERE

Advertising

Professor Tanya Byron published her progress review on child internet safety at Number 10 on Monday. Read it in its full 60-page glory HERE. The report commends the ad industry for the work done so far, especially the industry agreement to CAP’s remit extension – HERE.

UK internet advertising expenditure has grown 4.2% to £3.5bn in 2009, and IAB/PWC figures reveal that ad spend mushroomed by 2,200% during the last decade. Search has surpassed £2bn, while online video ads have enjoyed spectacular growth. The Internet Advertising Bureau’s Guy Phillipson appeared on BBC R5 and you can listen to him HERE.

Radio

The Lords Communication Committee has published its report into digital switchover of television and radio this week, a summary is on our blog HERE more on the radio aspects of the report HERE download the full report HERE

Film

The UK Film Council has published its three year plan and launches its new £15m Film Fund, following three months consulting on proposals across the film sector. More HERE

EM Media announces nine new digital media projects with the support of the East Midlands Development Agency, more HERE

Camelot

The National Lottery operator’s shareholders have agreed to sell their shares to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan for £389 million, more HERE . Just think, it could have been you. Then again, if you used to teach in Ontario, it is you.

Fashion

Last week, twenty emerging London design talents flew to New York to show their work at the Soho Grand at the invitation of Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, more, and an analysis of the increasing profile of fashion in the political world, HERE

The British Fashion Council have launched their first ever ‘Pop-Up’ store to celebrate new British design talent at Bicester Village yesterday, featuring clothes from Erdem, Mark Fast, PPQ, Todd Lynn, House of Holland, Osman and Hannah Marshall, more HERE

Meanwhile Skillset’s remit is expanding to cover fashion and textiles creating one of the biggest Sector Skills Councils, more HERE

Arts and Heritage

Libraries

Following the Libraries Review, which promises to make an ‘affirmative order preventing libraries from charging for ebooks lending of any sort, including remotely’, the Booksellers Association has written to Margaret Hodge warning that the commercial book business risks being undermined by the free loading of ebooks by libraries in a letter sent to culture minister Margaret Hodge, more HERE The Booksellers Association have been joined in their protest by the Society of Authors and the Writers Guild, who have also written to La Hodge on the matter, more HERE

Visual Art

As part of its tenth anniversary celebrations, Tate Modern will host a festival of independent arts, No Soul For Sale, hosting over 60 of the world’s most innovative independent art spaces, not-for-profit organizations and artists’ collectives to take over the turbine hall, more HERE

Meanwhile Tate has appointed former Guardian and Observer marketing director Marc Sands to be director of audiences and media, congratulations to him, more HERE

Heritage

Ben Bradshaw has announced £250,000 funding for Bletchley Park Museum funding an urgent repair programme within the conservation area, more HERE

The Historic Houses Association have a lovely new website, HERE

The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced a £25m increase in its annual budget for new awards to heritage projects across the UK following a rise in National Lottery ticket sales, more HERE . They’ll get even more if we win the election.

Dance

The Dance sector has a national campaign running to get as many Parliamentary candidates as possible interested in and connected to dance, more HERE

Music

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s In Harmony music project is the subject of a specially commissioned 30-minute film to be broadcast on BBC One North West on Easter Monday, 5th April, at 3.40pm , more HERE

Cultural Learning Alliance

The Cultural Learning Alliance brings together the cultural sector including museums, film, libraries, heritage, dance, literature, new media arts, theatre, visual arts and music with the education and youth sector to promote the vision of a stronger cultural entitlement. More HERE It sounds great to us, and there’s a lovely film of David Cameron on their website.

Museums

Congratulations to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, which won the 2010 Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award today! More HERE

The NMDC’s monthly newsletter is out now, read it HERE

Writing

Congratulations to British writer Rosemary Sutcliff has been awarded the major US 2010 Phoenix Award, for The Shining Company more HERE

Culture Blogs

Lord ‘jostle like a dragon’ Tebbit has his own culture blog, more HERE

Election Fever

Rumour has it the election might be called shortly. We hope that this email will continue during the campaign, although we can’t quite confirm that as yet, so watch this space. Email-wise, during the campaign Ed will be on HERE. Helen will be delighted to receive your suggested Weekly contributions on HERE.

In Parliament

Parliamentary Questions

Pricey hospitality at the DCMS HERE

Payments to the Newspaper Licensing Agency HERE

Almost 23000 people employed at the BBC HERE

Public opinions of the BBC HERE

EDMs

1228 Hospital Radio Awards HERE

1223 Digital Economy Bill HERE

1215 Licensing of Live Music HERE

1206 National Anthem and the BBC HERE

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Game Based Learning Conference, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner at Working Title, AOP, Getty Images, BAPLA, Video Games Hustings, City Screen, LGA Annual Culture Tourism and Sport conference, Newcastle City Library, Great North Museum: Hancock, Telegraph digital team, Ofcom, UK Music reception, Big Society Seminar.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email

Weekly email 25th March 2010

April 12th, 2010 -

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Tags:

Advertising, Architecture, arts council england, Budget, Design, Film, gift aid, Heritage, Libraries, olympics, Philanthropy, regional news, skills, telecoms, tv, Video Games

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 9^th 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 7^th 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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Weekly Email

News Summary: 23rd March 2010

March 23rd, 2010 -

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Tags:

Censorship, Competition, Craft, Google, Heritage, Television

Google China

Google’s announcement in January that it was no longer willing to remove sensitive material from search results highlighted the issue of China’s domestic internet controls. But its decision last night to shift its Chinese-language service to servers in Hong Kong looks likely to put the spotlight on the methods Beijing uses to block content that is hosted overseas. The censorship system works because it is twofold: it consists of controls on the content posted inside the country, and the ‘great firewall’, which prevents mainland users from reading material hosted overseas.

While Google may have stopped censoring its results thanks to its move to Hong Kong, the Chinese government has not. That is why, using google.com.hk from the mainland last night, searches for ‘Tiananmen student movement’ in Chinese and ’89 student movement’ in English brought no results – just a message that is all too familiar to internet users in China: ‘The connection was reset.’

The great firewall is implemented by internet police in three ways. The first two are common tactics: blacklisting domain names and IP addresses, for example those belonging to groups such as Amnesty International. Dr Steven Murdoch – a researcher at the computer laboratory of Cambridge University and member of the Tor project, which helps internet users surf the web anonymously – said Chinese authorities have been using such methods with increasing zeal. According to Murdoch, the third technique used by China is ‘close to unique,’; this is the keyword blocking system. Essentially, the government’s system mirrors and searches each packet of data as it passes in and out of the country, looking in URLs and webpages for keywords such as ‘falun’, in reference to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. Should it find them, it breaks the connection.

The Chinese government has responded to say: ‘This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicisation of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts’. More in The Guardian HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE and HERE; Telegraph HERE and HERE; and FT HERE.

Television

Project Canvas, the joint venture between terrestrial broadcasters and internet service providers to create a new web-connected television platform, will be investigated by the OFT, which has said it will study whether the plans of the venture’s members –which include the BBC, ITV and BT – could amount to a merger and whether that would mean less competition. The project could then be referred to the Competition Commission. The Canvas members said yesterday that they had submitted proposals to the OFT, arguing that these did not constitute a merger and should not be referred to the commission. Richard Halton, project director for the venture, said:

‘The Canvas partners are clear that the joint venture does not qualify as a merger and we welcome the opportunity to clarify this position formally. We are delighted that Arqiva have committed themselves to the project. They have a history of positive and progressive support for Freeview.’ More in The Guardian HERE and Times HERE.

Heritage Crafts

Next month, Sheffield city council’s planning committee will consider an application to turn Portland Works into studio apartments and office space. The structure itself is Grade II* listed, and the development looks sympathetic enough. But if it goes ahead, the small group of present-day Little Mesters who occupy the Portland’s warren of workshops – a knifemaker, a tool forger, a silver plater, an engraver, a die maker – will be gone, probably for good. Robin Wood, chair of a newly formed lobby group, the Heritage Crafts Association, which is being launched today at the V&A has said:

‘I’d estimate that more people in the world today eat with stainless steel knives and forks than speak English… You could argue it’s our biggest cultural export. So it seems quite extraordinary that we can protect the bricks and mortar of a place like this, but not care in the least about the skills and craftsmanship that are so much of this city’s culture and identity… ‘they’re every bit as much a part of our cultural heritage as grand museums, fine buildings and admired works of art or literature.’

There exists a peculiarly British problem; in 2003, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) adopted a Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, including ‘traditional craftsmanship’, which argued that any effort to safeguard traditional craftsmanship should focus not on preserving craft objects, but on ‘creating conditions that will encourage artisans to continue to produce crafts of all kinds, and to transmit their skills and knowledge to others’. More than 100 countries signed up. Britain did not. More in The Guardian HERE.

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Daily News Summary

Heritage tourism contributes £20bn to UK economy

March 8th, 2010 -

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Tags:

Heritage, Lottery, Tourism

A new report published today, commissioned by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), reveals for the first time the scale of the heritage tourism industry in the UK, estimating its GDP contribution to be £20.6 billion.

The research establishes that the sector makes a bigger contribution to UK GDP than the advertising, car manufacturing or film industries.

Building on work carried out for VisitBritain, the report, Investing in success: Heritage and the UK tourism economy, demonstrates that heritage is a major motivation behind the tourism expenditure of both overseas and domestic visitors. It shows that the heritage tourism sector, including historic buildings, museums, parks and the countryside, directly supports an estimated 195,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

Jenny Abramsky, Chair of Heritage Lottery Fund has said:

‘We now have the figures to prove that heritage packs a substantial economic punch. Last year, domestic and overseas holiday visitor numbers grew as the wider UK economy was shrinking. Our museums, historic sites and landscapes, are proving to be an immense and essential attraction, bringing in new visitors and boosting local economies. As we all look to economic recovery, we must keep investing in heritage tourism so that it continues to flourish, bringing with it key economic benefits’.

Key points in the research report

Over 10 million holiday trips are made by oversees visitors to the UK each year with 4 in 10 leisure visitors citing heritage as the primary motivation for their trip to the UK – more than any other single factor.
Heritage tourism is a £12.4bn a year industry. This is the annual amount spent not just at heritage attractions themselves (e.g. the cost of entrance to a historic site or in a museum shop) but also the broader amount of spending that can be reasonably said is ‘motivated’ by the desire to visit heritage attractions (e.g. visiting a restaurant or staying at accommodation).
Domestic tourism or the ‘staycation’ is the main component of this expenditure; of the annual £12.4billion spent on heritage-based tourism, 60% comes from UK residents on day trips and UK holidays.
£7.3billion of heritage expenditure is based on visits to built heritage attractions and museums, with the bigger £12.4billion including visits to parks and the countryside as well.
The direct GDP contribution of heritage tourism – the wages and profits earned by tourism businesses, such as hotels, restaurants and shops, as well as heritage attractions themselves – is estimated at £7.4bn a year. Once economic multiplier impacts are added – such as the income earned by suppliers to tourism businesses – the total GDP contribution of heritage tourism is £20.6bn a year.
Tourism has the potential to be one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy over the next decade, and the appeal of heritage will be vital to that growth.

Sandie Dawe MBE, Chief Executive of VisitBritain commented:

‘Heritage tourism is the UK’s 5th largest industry. Our heritage economy is vibrant and a crucially important part not just of the £114 billion visitor economy but of our local, regional and national economies as well. VisitBritain’s research in 32 countries around the world reveals that our core strength as a visitor destination is our heritage, history, pageantry and culture.’

Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said:

‘HLF’s current report successfully demonstrates the importance of heritage tourism to the UK economy. In times of economic difficulty, heritage tourism has proven its enduring popularity. As we come out of recession, we must continue to build on this positive position.”

The Heritage Lottery Fund has invested £4.4billion in the UK’s heritage since 1994. Over the past five years, the organisation has carried out extensive research into the impacts of completed projects including a series of visitor surveys and economic-impact case studies. The current report demonstrated the value of the Lottery Fund as follows:

visit numbers typically increase by more than 50% following an HLF-funded project
88% of visitors rate the value for money of HLF’s investment as either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
an estimated 32,000 jobs have been sustained in the tourism sector as a direct result of HLF funding
every £1million of HLF funding leads to an increase in tourism revenues for regional economies of £4.2million over 10 years.

You can read the report in full HERE, the FT’s coverage HERE and more about the HLF at www.hlf.org.uk.

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DCMS halves National Heritage Memorial Fund grant

March 3rd, 2010 -

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Heritage

The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) has confirmed that it has been notified by DCMS that its grant in aid allocation for 2010/11 will be reduced from £10million per annum to £5million per annum.

The NHMF is the only fund dedicated to saving the most important heritage at risk of loss to the nation. The many objects, buildings and landscapes it has saved over the last 30 years stand as a memorial to those who have given their lives for our country.

Carole Souter, Chief Executive of the NHMF, has said:

‘We understand the real pressures facing the DCMS but we are very disappointed in the reduction to the National Heritage Memorial Fund next year. However, DCMS has indicated that it may be possible to top-up the Fund either this year, or during the course of next year, and we very much hope that they will be able to do so.

‘Such a significant reduction – 50 per cent – means we face the very real prospect of seeing parts of our national heritage lost forever. During 2010 -11 we are due to make staged payments for past grant commitments so our budgets were already stretched. Given the applications we now know are coming to us and the current volume of export stopped items, the pressures on our budget are likely to be even more severe.

‘Our Board will be discussing the implications of this reduction for the grant awards budget in 2010 when they meet later in March. Trustees have in the past used the NHMF endowment to save particularly outstanding parts of our heritage and, if the situation were critical, could consider doing so again.’

www.nhmf.org.uk

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News Summary: 1st March 2010

March 1st, 2010 -

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BBC, Filesharing, Heritage, Libraries, Music, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio

Libraries

Libraries are among the services “most vulnerable” to widespread cuts across local councils, with a BBC survey estimating 25,000 public sector jobs could be lost around the country (more HERE). More than 70% of the 49 councils that responded to the survey predicted spending cuts of between 5% and 20%. The BBC reports that:

‘… services such as libraries… face cuts as councils battle the “perfect storm” of recession – falling revenues and higher demand’

Local Government Association deputy chairman Richard Kemp has said:

‘We know that if the government ring-fences schools, health, defence and the police, other services will need to take a big hit. The LGA view is that everything else will face a cut of 16.5% in real terms. Others believe it could be 18.5%.’

The Guardian reports HERE that under a 10-point government plan to help councils cut spending – in response to the BBC survey – suggests that “arts and leisure services will be most vulnerable to cuts while homelessness, children’s social services and planning are likely to be more protected”.

Meanwhile Tony Travers, director of the Greater London group at the London School of Economics, says:

‘Nothing like this has happened for a generation… To minimise the impacts on the public… would require massive efficiencies in all service, higher charges for many and sharing back-office staff with other public bodies.’ More in The Telegraph HERE.

Heritage

The Times reports fears that historic treasures worth millions will be lost to the country after ‘the Government quietly halved its grant to the “fund of last resort” for heritage.’ Treasury pressure has forced the DCMS to reduce the £10 million previously allocated to the National Heritage Memorial Fund for next year to £5 million, meaning that the fund’s acquisition budget for next year is now in effect down to £1.7 million because £3.3 million of its funds are already committed to assisting the £50 million purchase of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon from the Duke of Sutherland. More HERE.

Radio

In a strongly worded letter to Mark Thompson, the Director-General, representatives of the music industry have said they were ‘surprised and alarmed’ by last week’s reports that the BBC is to close 6Music. Geoff Taylor and Tony Wandsworth; chief executive and chairman of the British Phonographic Industry have said:

’6 Music has established itself as a vital platform providing exposure to a wide range of emerging British music talent… There is no other radio station that is remotely comparable in scale or depth for showcasing new music... It is therefore vital to the artistic and cultural diversity of this country that the role of 6 Music as a taste-maker for the airwaves is preserved.’ More in the Times HERE; and in our Weekend News Summary HERE.

Whilst The Guardian thinks the 6 Music announcement has reminded people why they pay the licence fee, HERE; The Telegraph thinks the licence fee could be scrapped altogether under a Labour government, in response to Ben Bradshaw’s view that there is ‘good reason’ to have a debate as to whether the £3.6 billion annual licence fee is the ‘best funding mechanism’ for the BBC HERE. Further coverage of the BBC’s strategic review, or ‘election manifesto’, can be found in The Guardian HERE.

Tech

CeriseClub, a French internet company has said that illegal file sharing is a ‘national sport’. Southwest France is said to hide one of the highest rates of software piracy in the developed world. Poitou-Charentes, for instance, may be famed for its goat cheese, but it has been hailed by La Charente Libre, the local daily newspaper, as “champion of counterfeit software”.

Studies suggest that 42 per cent of software programmes are copied illegally in France, compared with 26 per cent in Britain and 27 per cent in Germany. In the southwest, the piracy rate was 49 per cent. The cost to business in France is estimated at £1.8 billion — by far the highest in the European Union, driven by an attitude of “Microsoft makes billions. It can afford to lose a few euros here and there”. More in The Times HERE, which also covers today the need to save music from “the twin ravages of illegal downloading and a lack of strategic direction” HERE; and the disproportionate effect of sharing on newcomers’ earnings HERE.

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Weekend News Summary 27th-28th February 2010

March 1st, 2010 -

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Art, BBC, Censorship, Design, Education, Google, Heritage, ITV, Opera, Private Funding, Public Service Broadcasting, Publishing, Radio, Theatre

Education

An influential group of leading academics and cultural figures has issued a stark warning that they fear for the future of the arts and humanities in British universities. A letter to the Observer (see HERE) signed by the directors of major arts institutions and a number of university vice-chancellors, claims that funding cuts and a decision to focus on the sciences have left subjects such as philosophy, literature, history, languages and art facing “worrying times”. Without urgent action the country’s intellectual heritage is in danger of being diminished, they conclude, and, with reference to Labour’s decision to run tertiary education from the Business department:

“There is more to citizenship than business and skills… People’s complexity comes from their language, identities, histories, faiths and cultures.” More in The Observer HERE and HERE.

Broadcasting

BBC chiefs effectively wrote off £150m of licence-payers’ money spent on an online education service, BBC Jam, after it was axed, and officials decided efforts to recoup the cash by selling off the material “wasn’t worth the candle” reports The Independent on Sunday HERE.

It has also emerged that leaked proposals by Mark Thompson to axe the digital radio station 6Music have set the BBC’s director-general on a collision course with the BBC Trust. Two weeks ago, the trust published a report into 6Music which concluded the music station was “well liked by its listeners” and its audience had “grown faster than any other BBC digital radio-only service”. It emerged last week that Thompson’s proposals, to be published next month, recommend closing the station down. Other proposals include shutting the Asian Network, slashing the website’s staff by 25 per cent, selling off magazines such as Radio Times and Top Gear and capping sports rights at 8 per cent of budget, or £300m. The news that 6Music is in danger has met with vocal opposition, despite an audience of fewer than 700,000, according to the latest Rajar figures. More in The Observer HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent on Sunday HERE and HERE; FT HERE.

This Wednesday’s full-year results presentation from ITV will be the platform for Archie Norman (Adam Crozier’s start date is yet to be confirmed) to present his plan for the broadcaster’s future – including a roadmap away from the Michael Grade era. The results will be far from woeful; analysts predict pre-tax profits doubling from £34.7m to around £67m-£88m. Numis Securities has forecast a pre-tax profit of around £75m based on the belief that advertising recovered dramatically in the last few months of 2009. The Sunday Times HERE; Telegraph HERE.

Funding

A host of internationally flavoured arts events in London in the coming months are being supported by companies that intend to use cultural links to support their business interests in emerging markets. HSBC, which promotes itself as the bank that best appreciates the world’s diversity, is emphasising that message by sponsoring this summer’s Brazil festival on the South Bank, about which we’ve blogged HERE. Marah Winn-Moon, HSBC’s head of cultural sponsorship, said:

“It is a great opportunity to bring clients in with a cultural hook, and then to start talking to them about doing business in those countries too”.

Overseas companies are also exploiting London’s vibrant arts scene to promote their business in an international context. Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust became the first African corporation to support art in Britain when it sponsored Tate Britain’s current exhibition of paintings by Chris Ofili, a painter of Nigerian heritage. The bank also sponsors the next installation at Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth, the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare’s “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle”, a reproduction of HMS Victory bedecked with sails decorated with African patterns. The work will be unveiled on May 24. Segun Agbaje, the bank’s deputy chief executive officer, said that arts sponsorship was an opportunity:

“… to give people another perspective on Africa, to talk about its heritage instead of droughts all the time”. More in The FT HERE.

Theatre

Sir David Hare, an associate director of the National Theatre, has said theatre lags behind other creative art forms, such as the novel, when it came to women and equality of expression. Theatres should realise that women’s writing for the theatre had reached a “tipping point”, he says:

“I don’t think the repertory of most theatres at the moment is reflecting what seems to be happening in terms of the most interesting new theatre…We would hope to see management of theatres reflecting where we think the creativity in playwriting is coming from… There’s no doubt that the structure of the theatre is plainly male… The rough and tumble of the theatre is like politics to a degree – it’s a macho business.” More in The Telegraph HERE.

Art

Some of the world’s most important paintings may be lost to the nation because there are no funds available to keep them here following the purchase of two works by Titian for £100m. The latest artwork poised to join the exodus of masterpieces is St John the Evangelist by the Italian Old Master Domenichino. Despite being in the UK for the past 100 years, the painting is likely to leave the country. Professor David Ekserdijian, of the Government’s Reviewing Committee has said:

“It is the best work by the artist remaining in private hands and its departure from the UK would be lamentable.”

Works to be lost from the country include:

Raphael’s Head of a Muse The “exquisite” drawing from 1510 – a preparation for a commission by Pope Julius II – looks likely to be on its way to America after being bought for a record £29.2m, even though “every possible effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it in the country”.

Turner’s Pope’s Villa at Twickenham One of Turner’s most important works is already in America after an export ban last year failed to find any institutions willing or able to pay the £5.4m the 1808 painting was worth.

Domenichino’s St John the Evangelist It will be “lamentable” if this £9.2m work from 1621-29 left the country after more than 100 years, according to the Reviewing Committee. Lamentable, but likely.

Works saved include:

Titian’s Diana and Actaeon A six-month campaign persuaded the public, the Scottish government and the Heritage Lottery Fund to part with £50m to buy the Old Master’s work from the Duke of Sutherland last year. Fundraising is due to start shortly to raise the same sum for the companion painting, Diana and Callisto, by 2012. Both were created between 1556 and 1559.

Turner’s Blue Rigi One of the finest watercolours by one of Britain’s greatest painters, an 1842 view of a Swiss mountain, was saved in 2007 after the Tate raised £4.95m. More in The Independent on Sunday HERE.

Banksy‘s undoubted knack for exploiting the feverish interest his anonymity provokes has certainly created a lot of hype around the documentary Exit. The point is, says Andrew Johnson in The Independent on Sunday HERE, it isn’t really about him. It’s more about the creation of another street artist, Mr Brainwash, and an exposé of the art market and “suckers” with too much money who want to be part of the latest thing.

Tech

In August 2009, it was hard to move around Beijing without seeing an advert for Google. China was awash with the logo of a company whose motto is “Don’t Be Evil”, and the scale of the investment was a palpable endorsement of China’s vital importance to the economics of any global company. Skip forward to January this year, and an official blogpost announced summarily that the censored results that China demanded from Google were no longer compatible with the company’s philosophy. Off the record, employees said the company would pull out of China imminently.

So did the search giant really decide to eschew profits in favour of a defence of free speech? Or did it realise it would never be the biggest search engine in China and simply cut its losses? The question that matters is simple: what does Google stand for? More in The Telegraph HERE. And the FT asks, having acquired power over those it freed, is Google now a monopoly HERE and how ethically is its power used HERE.

In the week when three Google execs have been convicted and awarded six-month suspended sentences for allowing a clip of an autistic boy being bullied to play on Google Video (see more HERE), The Observer asks HERE, When anyone can have their say, what use is the stuff that comes out the other end? What can be done with it, and who is going to be in charge of quality control when things go wrong? And Microsoft has attacked ‘aggressive’ Google, as covered in The Sunday Telegraph HERE.

Opera

The people of Thurrock are being promised a piece of Covent Garden, complete with the sparkling glamour of its greatest operatic divas and prima ballerinas. On Tuesday, the Royal Opera House will officially take over the centre of an empty 14-acre site near the Thames in Essex. Tony Hall, Royal Opera’s chief executive has said:

“I love the fact Covent Garden is going to do something in a place that is half an hour away from London by train, but could be miles and miles away in every other way… It is a place that is relatively deprived, for the south-east, and that has a history of manufacturing that makes it the right place for us.” More in The Observer HERE.

Design
The Independent on Sunday has picked up two top honours in the prestigious Best of News Design awards. Organised by the Society for News Design, the professional organisation for the world’s graphic designers who work in the industry, the awards recognise the best from around the world in newspaper production. More in The Independent on Sunday HERE.

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Heritage tourism contributes £20bn to UK economy

DCMS halves National Heritage Memorial Fund grant

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