DACS welcomes Labour Party’s pledge to support the creative industries
DACS joined other leading organisations at the Labour Creative Conference on Thursday 14 March, to hear the party’s plans to support the arts through investment, creative education, and greater security for freelancers.
Addressing the conference, the Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “In an industry dominated by freelancers, we need to make sure that work always pays - otherwise it becomes the preserve of the privileged. And that’s bad for the industry as well as the people who work in it.”
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Thangam Debbonaire, pledged to “make the creative industries central to a decade of national renewal, and a key driver of economic growth”.
Attending the conference, DACS Chief Executive Christian Zimmermann, said:
“DACS welcomes the recognition of the social and economic value that the creative industries bring to the UK. The visual arts are an essential part of this success: our art market is the second largest in the world, generating over £9.7 billion last year, and British artists from Sonia Boyce to Banksy, Peter Doig to Tracey Emin, are among the most well known in the world. But our artists need more support: the most recent available data showed artists earn an average of just £2000 a year from their practice, with two-thirds considering leaving the sector.
We are calling for: more support for freelance creatives, the driving force behind the success of the sector; considered regulation of AI, that protects human creativity, and new licensing mechanisms that allow artists to be paid for digital sharing of their work.”
Chief Executive, DACS
