This local election we’re asking you to save the arts and stop the cuts.
The government’s austerity squeeze on council budgets has put arts funding on the chopping board time and again.
Soon, there won’t be any local government arts funding left.
We’ve got to draw the line somewhere.
Will you take action to save the arts and stop the cuts this election?
We’re asking you to take a series of actions to save the arts in your local Town Hall. Whether you’ve got time for just sending an email, or coordinating a protest, there will be a campaign action here for everyone.
Sign up for your campaign guide
Sign up to receive your campaign pack with everything you need to run an effective campaign in your area, whether you are going to target your local council, your metro mayor election, or the London Assembly election.
We’ve set out the campaign steps in a clear and simple way, with links to campaign tools and templates that we’ve already written, to help you kickstart a campaign in your local council area.
Why we need to act
Last year councils invested more than £2 billion in culture and library services in England alone – more than double Arts Council England’s investment. But thanks to austerity and inflation, that’s still 40% less per person than in 2010.
Local council arts budgets are tiny enough as it is. Cutting them won’t solve the funding problems they face, but it will have an outsize impact on the cultural life your family gets to enjoy in your local area.
Times are tough. Budgets are getting squeezed. But we all deserve to access the arts where we live.
Sign up to support our campaign. Get your council candidates on record. Do they support the arts or not?
Our demands to candidates
- Oppose cuts to existing funding and pledge to ring fence culture funding in the May elections.
- Require union contracts, terms and conditions for all public funding of the arts.