It’s what Margaret Thatcher, of course, always dreamt of (apart, that is, from her daughter winning I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here): an arts economy that stands on its own two legs. And following the US model in which state subsidies are negligible but business and private sponsorship is instead used to philanthropically prop up arts organisations (in return for the great kudos attached to doing so, not to mention branding opportunities that show the extent of their largesse, that has seen Broadway theatres variously renamed the American Airlines Theatre, the Hilton Hotel and the Cadillac Winter Garden), we are now rapidly catching up.
According to a story in today’s Guardian, private support of the arts has leapt from £393m to £452m in the last two years; though the vast majority in fact went to heritage projects, theatre benefited to the tune of a little under £31m in 2004/5 – an increase of 40% on previous investments in this sector.
The example and popularity of the Travelex scheme – first implemented at the National and now also at the Opera House – has led the way. The Travelex £10 season, as it is called, enables ticket prices to be heavily reduced at both places, and have been a big public success.
Nick Hytner is delighted with the philosophy behind it as well as the results: “I’m completely comfortable with the idea that we live in a mixed theatrical economy,” he is quoted saying in The Guardian. “That is always what has happened. For us it’s worked brilliantly.” And confronted with fears that business might want to exert an editorial influence over what is produced, he replied, “It’s easier to imagine being asked to do tiresome things to sustain a state subsidy.”
