Stratford Literary Festival Director Annie Ashworth responds to culture secretary’s visit to Stratford at the RSC

Annie Ashworth, Director, Stratford Literary Festival

It was heartening to hear Lisa Nandy commit to supporting the arts and acknowledge their benefit on communities at the Jennie Lee lecture.

The Stratford Literary Festival is an important part of the area’s cultural calendar attracting thousands of ticketholders. Our audiences are strong and growing, and we are committed to keeping our tickets affordable by ‘throwing open our doors’ as Nandy puts it to give ‘every child and adult…the opportunity [of] access’. Like many arts charities, we educate, nurture and connect people and communities through books, writing and reading. This includes our extensive outreach work in schools, with our community book group, and with our workshops in prisons across the country.

It was also encouraging to hear Nandy criticise the ‘farce that is the moral puritanism which is killing off our arts and culture’. Last year we became the biggest regional casualty of the activism that led to the loss of our headline sponsor, Baillie Gifford. Sponsorship and funding are vital to the arts and its ability to thrive and, importantly, they underpin our outreach work.

However, the hit businesses have taken on their payroll due to increased employer NI contributions has meant there is little left in the pot for sponsorship – something most want to do and see the benefits of but feel they can’t. Add to that slow economic growth and HMRC’s inconsistent approach to VAT on charities and cultural organisations, and you have the ingredients of a funding nightmare.

There are huge demands on the Government’s coffers. The NHS, defence, social care, schools, universities, housing. Lord knows how all the pressing demands will be paid for. And somewhere on that funding list needs to be the arts – because culturally nourished communities are happier and healthier, and then demand less from the public purse.

I see value in the Government rewarding philanthropy and sponsorship. I see value in addressing the wastage inherent in arts funding. I see value in Government giving local authorises funding that they can pass on to impactful arts organisations in their communities.

Lisa Nandy’s funding announced so far appears to be for buildings and infrastructure. Let’s hope there’s more down the back of the sofa for lower-overhead organisations like ours too. She is making the right noises. Let’s hope it’s not just ‘sound and fury, signifying nothing’.