Rohan Silva: We should be fostering art and creativity in our city, not killing it off

'Motor for regeneration': Street art in Shoreditch earlier this year

End of the Line

18 October 2015

Before I started my own business, I spent nine (long) years working on public policy - first at the Treasury, then in Parliament, and finally in Downing Street.

For much of that time, I lived in fear of the one withering sentence that could kill off just about any new idea. All a senior civil servant or minister would have to do in response to a new policy proposal was raise their eyebrows and say with a smile: “I’m sorry, but that’s just not a serious issue.” And that was that. Game over.

The reason this was such a potent put down is that it speaks to a hidden truth, which is that in politics some topics are considered legitimate, while others aren’t. Sometimes these categories make sense, but all too often they’re arbitrary and misguided. Take childcare, for example. Even though free nursery places would make a huge difference to millions of parents, for a long time this kind of family policy simply wasn’t seen as “serious”, which is why it was rarely put forward by mainstream politicians.

In London today, we see a particularly terrible example of this type of narrow thinking. Just like childcare, it’s a critically important social and economic issue, but it’s just not being taken seriously at the highest levels. I’m talking about the slow decimation of artist studio spaces in the capital.

Over the past five years, we’ve lost huge swathes of affordable space for artists, and unless urgent action is taken, this trend will only accelerate. A recent study found that a further 30% of artist studios in the capital will have disappeared by 2020, leaving London’s critically endangered artists on the verge of extinction.

Unfortunately, this just isn’t seen as a “serious” problem by policy makers, which is a massive mistake on three levels.

First, it overlooks the immense economic benefits that artists bring to a city. Our art scene is the bedrock of our creative industries, which generate over £21 billion each year in our city, and create 1 in 6 new jobs. Consider tourism too. London is the most visited city in the world, with eight out of ten tourists naming culture as the main reason for coming here. If our artists disappear, the long-term impact on visitor numbers could be devastating.

Second, it fails to recognise the fact that artists are agents for regeneration across our city. Take Shoreditch, for example. First the art kids moved in, then the galleries started opening up - and then cafes, bars, creative companies and all the rest. You see the same pattern time and again in cities around the world. Killing off London’s artists means losing this catalyst for regeneration, leaving us all poorer.

Third, it fails to take into account the structural changes in our economy. As technology develops, it’s replacing more and more jobs previously done by humans. Jobs involving creativity are much less likely to be replaced, because computers are currently pretty useless at this type of work. So if we’re going to ensure there are enough jobs in future, we need to be fostering art and creativity in our city – not killing it off.

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Rohan Silva

Treasury

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Shoreditch

Rohan Silva: We should be fostering art and creativity in our city, not killing it off

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