Culture Vulture

Sir Brian McMaster’s policy review Supporting Excellence in the Arts states.

• that the board of every cultural organisation should contain at least two artists and or practitioners,
• that all publicly funded cultural organisations remove admission charges for everyone for one week each year to address the endemic ‘it’s not for me’ syndrome, and
• that the ten most innovative cultural companies receive ten-year funding packages to support their ambition.

Ok, I've worked with a number of boards and it's hard enough getting a small number of people to a board meeting let alone adding even more people into the mix. The artists (or practitioners) would become 'representatives' or silent board member i.e. unable to actually vote on the development and running of the organisation.

Remove admission charges...a comparable thing I've seen is a great reduction in the West End ticket costs with Kids Week. It doesn't work in the way that McMaster envisions; the theatres are just filled with pushy mothers and stage school brats. They are the people that the shows are already reaching. Cinemas used to do it with a free weekend - they are just filled with cinema geeks. If there was a free cultural week, of course I'd go but I'm already going...

Oh, alright I'll give him this one to a degree but only if the list only includes nationwide representatives from every fundable sector - i.e. only one orchestra, only one opera, only one ballet....plus they tour to every UK town possible and offer free tickets to local schools for a number of performances. Also a majority of the organisations shouldn't be from London.

The Guardian response here
The Times response here