Arts

Guardian - Everyone in Britain should be issued with a “universal library card” and children should spend 10% of their school time on arts activities, according to a new report.The Fabian Society’s Arts For Us All calls for Keir Starmer’s government to remove the “class ceiling” by democratising access to the arts in schools and ensure culture is a prominent feature of its “decade of economic renewal”.

Starmer spoke passionately about his love for the arts in the lead up to the election, while promising to review school curriculums to ensure the “downgrading” of arts subjects stopped, but there has been little concrete policy so far.

Alison Cole, the director of the thinktank’s arts and creative industries policy unit, said Labour had the chance to rebuild the cultural sector and encourage economic growth in the process. She said: “By embedding creativity in the school curriculum; making the arts part of everyone’s daily experiences; firing up our world-leading creative industries; and investing in creativity and technology hand in hand, we can harness the arts as powerful engines of change, inspiration and future growth.”