This is an old Chris Riddel cartoon in the Observer, but it illustrates my point, all the better for being a not very good likeness of Tony Blair. Yes, I could go on to rant about the iniquity of corruption in politics, but that is rather beside the point and will achieve nothing, whereas writing about the trials and tribulations, disappointments and joys of the potter is equally unproductive but much more to my liking.
The early 21st century scenario is one of devastation: throughout the country, important, active, busy, imaginative arts organisations and events are being dismantled. having been created with vision and flair, they have fallen foul of subsidy starvation. Sacred cows of yore are being sacrificed to expediency and shortsightedness. From Cornwall to Nottingham, from Wales to North Yorkshire, pottery events and fairs are being shut down and their assets, collections and traditions handed over to private enterprise, who shut them in vaults and overlay them with elitist pretentions. The latest example is that Rufford collection of marvellous pots has been handed over to the tender care of the Harley Foundation. Everything else will disappear into dust, including opportunity and access. I have no idea of the economics of all this, I just find myself a consumer without a supply. So, WMD here stands for Want More Dosh. When the 2012 Olympics were a mere spec of mud in Seb Coe's trainer, I remember being in a conversation when somebody said: "And now all the lottery money will go to the games and the Arts Council will have to stretch the cash. " I grabbed that notion and, filled with mature sentiments of fair play, thought: we will wait for the Olympics to be over before getting too ambitious with our plans, then. I have only just realised that the Olympics have been over for a few years now and yet the money for the arts continues to shrink. There is some dosh around for high visibility political experiments - some of them in the grim up north, even - where councils put the percent for art into street lighting and call it the arts budget, or they take out of storage an old Barbara Hepworth and spend their entire arts budget on carting it to the site... you have to feel sorry for those in charge of conjuring up these smoke and mirrors activities. Community art is valuable and value for money. But the case has to be much stronger than that nowadays to attract new funding and we are all out of arguments. Volunteers are falling out with each other because there is no money to fund proper organisations and the burnout rate is tremendous. So, if an organisation is useful and well thought through, if it puts in place a service that is valuable, why let it go to the wall rather than rescue it with reasonable support? Why pretend that something new is happening by printing a few T-shirts, book bags and badges with a shelf life of less than 5 minutes? What is the point of branding something that doesn't exist? I know, I am SO old fashioned!...
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