Campaign for the Arts

@campaignforthearts.org

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We believe the arts make life better, and everyone should have opportunities to experience and take part in them. 🎶💃🎭🎨✍️📸🎥🧵🏛️ https://www.campaignforthearts.org/join/

Pink chart of purple background showing that the enrolment in arts GCSEs has reached its lowest recorded level in 15 years.
Background of amateur artwork featuring coloured paper and crayon, and bold text: Create Week 1–7 July. At bottom, #createweek, createweek.org
Image of two dancers in high-vis jackets in Stockton-on-Tees. Heading in cream text with pink background: Calling all arts photographers! Subtitle: We’re looking for the people who document the arts in the UK through photography
Yellow and red poster advertising an event. Title: What's next for the arts in schools? Subtitle: An Arts and Minds policy discussion. Body: Join leading lights from major cultural institutions, education, civil society and creative industries for policy discussions, panel events, keynote speeches, performances from young people. Date is Monday 27 April, time is 10am to 1pm followed by lunch, location is Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, London NW1 7AY. Logos for the English Folk Dance & Song Society, and Arts and Minds.
Handwritten 8,478 number in pink marker on background of lighting equipment on Strictly Come Dancing.
White and pink text on background of two dancers on Strictly Come Dancing: The Government wants “ambitious commercial options” for the BBC. We want something bolder.
White text on purple background with two dancers on Strictly Come Dancing: The BBC has a unique role in UK arts and culture. This review is a rare opportunity to renew & reinforce that role for the next decade. 🔗 Use CFTA’s consultation tool to help make your voice heard & your views count.
Purple text on pink background. Text: The Campaign for the Arts is staunchly non-partisan. We’ll always advocate for the arts, and never for any particular party or candidate. Captions and BSL interpretation available. Organised in partnership with: Logos for Culture Counts, Federation of Scottish Theatre, Scottish Contemporary Art Network, Festivals Edinburgh, Equal Media & Culture Centre and the Campaign for the Arts.
7 headshots on purple background with Scottish Parliament building inlay. Headshots: Angus Robertson, Scottish National Party (white man with silvery-blonde short hair and facial hair); Euan Davidson, Scottish Liberal Democrats (white man with short dark hair and glasses by the sea); Malcolm Offord, Reform UK Scotland (white man with glasses and slicked white hair, in a blue suit); Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (white man with short dark hair with a backdrop of hills); Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour (white man with short dark hair with a city backdrop); Q Manivannan, Scottish Green Party (Tamil person with long dark hair and a purple collarless shirt); in centre, Halla Mohiedeen, Chair (Lebanese-Scottish woman with medium-length dark hair pictured in a television studio).
White text on background image of Scottish parliament building, with inset image of Scottish parliament interior in thick pink border. Text: A free, open-access, livestreamed event chaired by Halla Mohieddeen and featuring: Angus Robertson, Scottish National Party Euan Davidson, Scottish Liberal Democrats Malcolm Offord, Reform UK Scotland Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour Q Manivannan, Scottish Green Party
White text on background image of Scottish parliament building, with inset image of Scottish parliament interior in thick pink border. Text: Scotland's Cultural Future, culture hustings for the next parliament. Thursday 26 February 2026, 7 - 8:30PM GMT.
Purple text on green background with Campaign for the Arts logo in top right corner: This week, two things happened for the arts in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
Purple text on green background: 🏘️ The increase in arts and culture spending over the last few years has mainly been driven by boosts to Local Culture and Sport. 🏥 Some areas – including the Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru / Museum Wales – have still not recovered since the cuts of 2024-25, once inflation is taken into account. 🧊 Arts Council of Wales in particular has received standstill funding this year. Their budget from the Welsh Government is now 7% smaller in real terms than it was three years ago – and 17% smaller than five years ago. 🛟 While we need to see investment across the board for the arts to truly thrive, it is overall encouraging to see the Welsh Government start to restore some key budget lines – and recognise the potential of the arts to make lives better and society stronger.
Purple text on green background: Wales increases overall spending on the arts and culture for a second successive year. This is a move in the right direction after cuts in 2024 left the nation among the lowest in Europe for culture spend. Chart showing the overall culture budget decreasing from 2023-24 to 2024-25, then increasing each year until £186.5m in 2026-27.
Text: Scottish overall culture budget increased again for 2026-27. Once inflation is taken into account, the planned increase in the draft budget is £20 million (6%). Chart showing a £361m budget in 2025-26 rising to a £381m budget in 2026-27.
Image of a crowd at a festival with a performer holding a violin, with the Campaign for the Arts logo and text: Thank you for your support this year!
Lilac background with Campaign for the Arts logo and chart showing that the government is still planning to spend well over a third less per citizen on DCMS by 2029 than in 2010.
Image: Nnena Kalu accepting the Turner Prize 2025 in Bradford. Text: This week, Nnena Kalu made history as the first learning disabled artist to win the Turner Prize.
Girl playing saxophone in schools. Text: Big news for Arts Education. Curriculum change in England – what's happening?
Lisa Nandy at the Labour Party Conference with the quote: "Every town across Britain has its own story to tell. UK Town of Culture will celebrate the creativity, history and identity that has made us such a vibrant, diverse and incredible country."
Graph showing that the share of GCSE entries in Drama has fallen by 48% since 2010, reaching its lowest recorded level in 15 years.
Image of Owen Cooper holding his Emmy on stage, with the text "Last night, Owen Cooper made history as the youngest male Emmy winner ever, at just 15."
Chart showing the breakdown in arts subjects, emphasising that enrolment in performing arts A-levels has more than halved since 2010.
Chart showing that enrolment in arts A-levels has reached its lowest recorded level in 15 years, having fallen by 31% since 2010.
Part 2 of the quote that reads: Rather than fix 'leaky pipelines', we believe it's vital we build a power-base for those on the outside to work together to change these industries profoundly and permanently – so that everyone can contribute to the culture they live in, in all kinds of valuable ways.” By Neil Griffiths, the CEO of Arts Emergency
Part 1 of a quote that reads: Creativity and culture don’t operate like typical sectors. They are not just industries; they are communities. Relationships and access to networks carry amplified influence on who gets in and gets on. First-hand accounts from our community over the years reveal that many people earn a lot less than their peers in other sectors, and have to leave the industry or struggle to advance in it without having additional financial support.
Paragraph on same pale orange background that reads: That's if you earn a salary at all: the available data doesn’t consider the 47.9% of cultural sector workers who are self-employed. Artists Union England reported this month that 79% of their members did not earn enough from their art practice to live on. These figures hide other disparities: the gender pay gap closed slightly in 2024 after expanding year-on-year since 2021, but women still earn 83.1p for every £1 earned by men. The median wage in 2024 for workers across the cultural sector is over double in London versus the north East. DCMS doesn’t include ethnicity in this data. So, the long-term, structured support for young people accessing cultural work provided by organisations such as Arts Emergency is essential to an equitable sector – and a representative culture.
Chart showing the variance between the average annual earnings of employees in the cultural sector (by age group) versus all sectors (by same age groups) that shows a -43.7% difference between 18-21, only becoming positive by 40-49. Header reads: Cultural sector employees now earn below the UK average for their age until turning 40. But under-21s earn a staggering 43.7% less than the UK median at the same age – prompting questions of access for young people without additional financial means.
Pale orange background panel showing number 5 in a series and titled Arts Employment. Definition reads "A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which people can sustain a decent living from their work creating or supporting art.”
Part 2 of a quotation reading: "The data provided by the Campaign for the Arts shows an erosion of funding that is deeply concerning. We have already seen the impact of years of retrenchment on people and organisations and on the communities that they serve; affecting jobs, buildings, the talent pipeline, innovation and opportunity. There are holes in the fabric and we cannot afford for this to continue. Government has the ability and the mechanisms to turn this trajectory around: to fix these foundations, but also to be ambitious for our collective future. We need new ideas and models, risk and creativity. We need DCMS and the Treasury to listen and to act.” By Lizzie Crump & Clare Thurman, Co-Directors of What Next?
Part 1 of a quotation, reading: "Public funding for the arts and culture is critical to the fabric of our society. Culture is part of a vital ecosystem that feeds the creative industries and contributes to growth – but is far more than the sum of these parts. The arts and culture are about joy, community, and the creation of new ideas and shared experiences. It is a professional sector in its own right – one made up of large and small organisations, and powered by people (largely freelancers). It contributes strongly to many other agendas – from health to education – but is not defined by them."
Chart indexing the real-terms, per-person spending by the UK Government on Culture, Media & Sport between 2010-11 (100%), 2025-26 (67.7%), and 2028-29 (63.9%), showing a fall of over a third.
Title page with heading "4. Arts Funding" and description "A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which there is robust and sustained funding, from both public and private sources, so arts initiatives can grow and flourish.”
Part 2 of a quotation from Sophie Brownlee at Music Venue Trust: "Without dramatically improving the operating environment for GMVs, and embracing the policy changes they need across planning, VAT, ownership and business rates, the result will be simple and stark: people will not be able to access live music in their local community, or the opportunities and experiences that come with it.”
Part 1 of a quotation: "There is a very real crisis in the grassroots of our live music industry and the decreasing access to live music in our towns, cities and communities. In 2024, the number of venues making a loss increased from 38.5% to 43.8%, with more venues seeking help from our Emergency Response Service year-on-year. Those venues that do manage to remain open, despite the financial challenges, are being forced to decrease their live music offer – running fewer shows at a higher cost."
A chart depicting the number of Grassroots Music Venues declining year-on-year from 960 in 2022 to 810 in 2024, and the number of which requiring support to prevent permanent closure increasing from 118 (12.3%) in 2022 to 202 (24.9%) in 2024.
Slide with a blue background, the Campaign for the Arts logo, and a definition of Arts Provision: "A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which there is an extensive and diverse cultural offering: places to go and things to do.”
Second half of the quote from Sarah Kilpatrick, NEU National President: "As a result, we have seen the status of these subjects plummet. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore the status of the arts in schools, and ensure that all children receive a rich education that allows them to thrive.”
First half of a quote from Sarah Kilpatrick, NEU National President: "All students deserve a rich creative, artistic and cultural education of the kind that the wealthiest in our society take for granted. The arts make us who we are. Self-expression and shared experiences help us to define ourselves. Private schools know the value of arts and creative subjects and the doors they open for children that study them. But too many state schools are constrained by underfunding and the curtailment of the curriculum which comes from the high-stakes accountability system we've had imposed upon them."
Text on panel: "The figures we analysed only refer to state schools, and not independent ones. Looking at data like new arts facilities, artist-in-residence schemes, and academic strategies, one recent study found that over the same period, the arts have become more highly valued and integrated into the curriculum in private schools.1 As a result, access to arts and cultural degrees and careers is highly skewed. That’s why we’re a coalition member of the Arts and Minds campaign, urging the government to honour their commitment to put the arts back at the heart of education in primary and secondary schools."
Chart showing a decline of hours of arts teaching in English state-funded secondary schools from 501k in 2011 to 384k in 2024.