Yesterday’s Journal article detailing funding cuts to North East arts organisations made depressing reading.
This hasn’t been the best of weeks to be a parent. From child benefit to working tax credit, whatever the income bracket, families are being hit the hardest by the government’s rash of public spending cuts.
But much of the pain is still to come. The Art Council’s cuts have been revealed, but we are yet to hear how council budgets will further cut funds for many of our cultural gems.
And while libraries and the arts are for everyone, you can’t help but feel that families will once again be disproportionately affected.
Before having children, my local library was a useful resource that I rarely called upon. Now we visit twice weekly.
I used to visit galleries when I wanted to see a new exhibition. Now we visit the play areas and activity stations in The Shipley Art Gallery and the Laing Gallery every week. They are part of the fabric of my children’s lives.
It is hard to quantify what has been gained from countless sessions at Baltic, The Sage Gateshead, Dance City and Seven Stories – hard because having seen my children enthralled by imaginative programming and wonderful practitioners, I too am emotionally involved.
And I am grateful. All the riches of the arts – the opportunity to create, to dream, to make sense of their world – have been available to my children, often for free and never for more than the price of a trip to a dingy soft play centre.
Don’t imagine that every town is like this: we are fortunate to live in a city that has invested heavily and successfully in its cultural landscape for more than a decade. I believe it is the best thing about raising a family in NewcastleGateshead.
For a city that invests in its arts is one that invests in its children.