Last month's Dance Summit fell at a curious time as there is much debate in the cultural sector at large, whether it is about funding the future of dance, supporting new talent or succession planning for creative leaders.
The Dance Champions have a target of getting 100,000 more people dancing by 2012 and they were enthusiastic, open to discussion and curious as to how they can a) achieve this and b) support the dance sector up to and beyond 2012.
The current picture of dance highlights national and regional dance agencies and Youth Dance England are firmly embedding infrastructure for dancers across the generations.
A collective approach to national dance delivery
Arts Council England is utilising the recent dance mapping research and leading a national arts debate, Big Dance has embraced a collective approach to national dance delivery working with key organisations such as Foundation for Community Dance, Central Council for Physical Recreation, Dance Champions, Youth Dance England and the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers.
Meanwhile, Allan Davey, chief executive of Arts Council England (ACE) continues to lobby for sustained investment in the arts.
Dance UK is leading us by example both in terms of joined up approaches to political lobbying across the world and by embracing new approaches to supporting dance, such as working with the Dance Champions.
This organisation provides evidence to the ever growing arguments for dance and culture to make the case that it deserves ongoing investment. Almost five million people participate in community dance each year, a total of 10,000 students are in training a year and the dance workforce is 40,000 people.
Furthermore dance is the second most popular physical activity for young people after football and the most popular physical activity for girls and there are 50 professional dance companies in the UK producing over 500 productions every year which are enjoyed by over one million people.
Last week, at the National Campaign for the Art's London Art Hustings, Lib Dem MP Don Foster said that of every "£100 that the government spends in and on this Country 7p of it goes to art and culture". Foster also stated that it would be "economic madness and cultural vandalism to even think about cutting this".
Art and culture are integral to place making
All political parties agree that culture addresses a variety of key local and national priorities such as health, education, reduction in crime and repeat youth offending. Art and culture are integral to place making, regeneration and the growth of capital infrastructure as well as creative industries.
There is a wealth of evidence to illustrate where we are spending large amounts of money on continued problem areas. For example within the last year alone Birmingham Total Place findings highlighted that a high contact family costs up to £250,000 per year. Nationally we recognise that the average cost of a young person being held in a youth offending institute is £100,000 per year and the obesity epidemic is costing the country millions of pounds.
An average youth arts project for young people, in the first instance aimed at addressing one of the many social issues such as social exclusion, high truancy rates, bullying, low academic achievement, isolation and crime as well as encouraging growth in confidence, communication skills, self esteem and empowerment could cost as little as £150 a day (working with between 10-30 participants).
It is time to invest in the front line, the engine room, the artists, producers, spaces, consistent education across all key stages and succession planning for cultural leaders of the future. We must maintain investment in local authorities arts development and arts development teams.
Culture and art make an extraordinary contribution to this country and we must continue to create a climate for improvement, including all elements of culture. This is the arena that requires champions. If all cultural champions, including dance truly want to help the sector then they will assist by utilising the afore mentioned facts and evidence to support culture at both a local and national level.
Together cultural champions and the arts/creative sector can lead the UK to a healthy, successful, creative and dynamic future by recognising that culture must be held firmly in your palm and the palm of the political party that will next lead this country up to and beyond 2012.
Gail Brown is arts manager of the Kent Arts Development Unit
