Literature Research

It has proved very difficult to find any literary research based on my topic of Inquiry. I have decided to expand my questions, so that I can find more information about funding in the UK.

What funding is there for all the Arts from the Government and other funding companies?
How easy is it to get funding for a project e.g. opening up an arts school or company?
How are funding cuts affecting our economy?
How many non artists/artists go to watch theatre, singing, poetry or dancing? And how often?
How many arts organisations are being affected or shut down by government funding cuts?

I found this interesting article by The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/13/arts-funding-cuts-regions-badly-affected-econom-ic-stupidity

The article concentrates on Birmingham and Newcastle but still gives an insight to government cuts. In 2010 the cuts in Birmingham to arts organisations was 17% in 2010 and 20% in 2013 (The Guardian, 2015). In Newcastle 2012 the council threatened to reduce its budget by 100%, in the end they were still cut by 50%. This reveals along with other statistics I have found that government cuts happen every year and they show that the percentage goes up each time.

Clare Brennan, who wrote the article, pointed out that 'flourishing arts attracts attention, signal prosperity and encourage investors...cities with high tourist numbers have flourishing cafes, shops and theatre'. George Osbourne recognised the importance of putting money into the arts "£1bn of funding adds a quarter of a trillion pounds to the economy-not a bad return". So isn't it in our best interest to put money into the arts and fund new projects?

With regards to my question about how many people are there going to watch arts productions, I'm going to set up a survey for my fellow students on Survey Monkey, so lots of participants would be really helpful. I will then give the same survey to non artists and compare the results. I will put the survey up on my next blog post and I hope to find some more literary research surrounding my topic.