Publications

Cultural independence

By: a-n

Launched at the 4th World Summit of Arts and Culture in September, a new International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) report explores the issue of independence within government arts support.

While debate has often centred on the choice between arts council or ministry, such a dichotomy enormously oversimplifies the issue of independence, which, as the report suggests, is determined not just by agency type, but also by the mix of policy instruments, decision making processes, formal and informal rules and even individual personalities. Recent years have seen the rise of a mixed approach to arts and culture support. Greater recognition of the significance of culture in government policy making appears to have lead to a growth in the role and reach of ministries of culture in some countries. At the same time, however, a number of governments have established an arm's length arts agency to complement their culture ministry or department. The constantly evolving cultural policy landscape can substantially alter the degree of independence of government arts support. Written by Christopher Madden, the report reviews cultural policy literature and data gathered over by IFACCA over several years to address two main issues relating to political involvement in arts support: how much influence do governments have over arts funding?; and how much influence should they have over...

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