Actors blast ‘short-sighted’ cutbacks to arts funding

Sir Patrick Stewart led the group, which also included Maxine Peake and Penelope Wilton, to deliver a letter to the Government calling for a meeting to discuss their concerns.

West, who starred in the film version of EM Forster’s Howard’s End, warned the Arts Council’s budget cuts would affect all of society and damage the industry he described as “one of the success stories”.

“It’s short-sighted of the Government not to notice when an industry like this is really successful,” he said.

“A cut to the arts doesn’t just slim down bureaucracy and take out middle managers. We’ve lost 206 companies’ funding. They’re all employers, they all employ people and if you cut a theatre you cut a place that’s the hub of local community.

“If a theatre closes, the restaurant next to it closes, the pub down the road takes a hit, the people who supply stuff to the theatre, maybe they go out of business as well,” he said.

“It’s a tiny amount of money. We’re not just here to work our arses off for 50 years and then die. The whole point of arts funding is not just that it makes money for the country, it’s good for people.”

He added: “The arts cost everybody in this country 14p a week, that’s about two thirds of a pizza in a year and for that, you get a world-class industry that is the envy of every other country in the world.”

The delegation’s visit came just over a week after Arts Council England (ACE) announced public funding cuts which saw some bodies lose out completely. Others saw their future spending slashed although some were promised increased grants. The Government has told ACE to cut 15 per cent from what it gives out to arts groups by 2015, leaving it with just under £1bn to distribute.

West said the Government “could have fooled me” when it pledged that the arts would be safe when coming into power and said it was important that funding continued to the sector.

“The Government has to balance their budgets so you have situations like in Somerset where the Government has cut 100 per cent of all arts funding,” he said.

“In a largely rural community that’s funding exhibitions, big festivals and painting and dance classes for the elderly and all sorts of stuff that goes into people’s villages and makes their life less boring.”

Sir Patrick handed over the petition, which requests an “arts summit” involving key bodies and artists to discuss a “coherent policy” for the UK’s arts sector.

The actor – whose roles have ranged from Shakespeare to Star Trek – said the arts “lie at the very centre, the very fabric of the culture, the ideology and the entertainment life of this country”.

The petition was presented on behalf of Equity, the trade union representing performers and other workers in the UK’s entertainment and arts industries.