Nick Ahad: Arts organisations must stop accepting cuts as inevitable

This time next week arts organisations across Yorkshire will know how they can plan for the future – and if they have one.

All organisations funded by Arts Council Yorkshire have been told to budget for 10 per cent cuts in the next year and at 12.30pm next Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne will deliver the bad news of what the next three years hold. Make no mistake, the news will be bad.

Despite all the campaigning, all the arguments, all the impassioned speeches, few who work in the arts are under any illusion that Mr Osborne will deliver glad tidings.

This week, Sir Nicholas Serota was the latest to stick his head above the parapet, and one of the most high profile people to come out beating the drum for continued investment in the arts.

Writing in a national newspaper, Sir Nicholas argued: "With the ruthlessness of a blitzkrieg the coalition is threatening the stability of an entire system for cultural provision that has been built up by successive Conservative and Labour governments... that has made Britain a civilised place to live, where all have an opportunity to enjoy the arts or celebrate our heritage, and have been doing so in increasing numbers."

I can't put it any better – but I can push it a little further.

Earlier this week, I took a tour around the new 12m Northern Ballet building, in Leeds's burgeoning cultural quarter. As we walked around the stunning new building, I got talking with my guide about the cuts.

"We know the cuts are inevitable," she said, before meeting the business end of my opinion.

With a professional attachment to the arts, my views could be dismissed as those of a fundamentalist with an entrenched view and a vested interest. But actually, that should go for all of us – at least those who want to live in a civilised, forward-thinking society.

I suggested to my guide that, actually, arts organisations saying they accept the cuts as inevitable are playing into the hands of the coalition. What we need is more people to say that no, we don't need these cuts – as Damian Cruden, the man in charge of York Theatre Royal argues forcibly in today's main section of the Yorkshire Post. Unrealistic? Lacking pragmatism? Not necessarily. Economics I gave up pretty sharply at school, so I don't claim any particular grasp of that subject, but even I can see that, if an investment in an organisation yields more than you put in, that organisation is worth investing in.

The arts, very simply, pay back to the economy more than we invest in them (although we call it subsidy). End of argument. Not only should cultural organisations stop saying "'yes, the cuts are inevitable" but they should start arguing that as economic engines they are vital to stimulating both us and the country back to a position of prosperity.

Otherwise when the dust settles we could all find ourselves much poorer – and I don't mean financially.