What follows is a Twitter thread I wrote in response to some excellent recent essays on UK arts funding.

I’ve been thinking about a very important and balanced essay from Richard Bratby on the promise and perils of private arts funding in the UK. His description of the plight of Mid Wales Opera, where many of my friends and colleagues play and sing, is heart-wrenching and painfully familiar.

Will Wigmore Hall’s new private funding model convince Britain’s wealthy elite to rethink how we should subsidise the arts?Wigmore Hall has announced that it will move to an entirely self-sufficient funding model in the coming years, but what does this mean for the future of arts fundraising in the UK?https://www.classical-music.com/articles/wigmore-halls-new-private-funding-model-rethink-how-subsidise-the-arts

For all the talk about rebalancing support and funding to lower the difference between arts provision in and out of London, it’s easier for a group like ESO to raise private funds by going to London than in the communities where we do 99% of our work, even though there is money in our region. I’m reminded of a local multi-billionaire whose mom was a long-time fan & Friend of ESO. When she developed dementia, our musicians went to his estate to play for her several times. It meant so much to her. In total, he’s given something like £300, & nothing since about 2016 or 17. Another billionaire I met with, who wrote the most lovely email praising all the good we were doing, sent us 1 check for £250. Of course, if I could tell billionaire No. 2 that billionaire 1 was giving £300k, I’m sure he’d have added a “k” to his donation too. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my very limited time amongst the very, very rich, it’s that they tend to think that their total commitment to groupthink makes them iconoclastic genius original thinkers. No price is too high to be the most perfect embodiment of the herd mentality.

I think it’s important to be realistic in our expectations. 25 years ago, at my first job conducting a small town community orchestra in rural Oregon, our local main street hardware store and the tire (or tyre) repair shop gave more in sponsorship EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR than ANY business has EVER given ESO even ONCE in my ten years here. These were tiny mom and pop businesses who saw supporting classical music as part of their duty to their customers and their community, and something which brought them pride and satisfaction. By and large, we didn’t even have to ask them for money. A check (or cheque) would arrive halfway through the summer, sometimes saying something like “looking forward to sponsoring the April concert again this year” and we’d put their names in the program and get back to work. I’m not too proud to grovel for money for the arts, but it’s important to remember that there was a time and place when supporting community institutions was not something you needed to be asked to do.

In 2000, my Oregon East Symphony started a new youth orchestra. In the first year before we had any grant income to support it, it was 100% funded by a local house painter (who stepped forward without being asked), which meant we could provide FREE orchestral training to every kid in the region who wanted it. The success of the group his sponsorship made possible meant we were able to start a holistic program called Playing for Keeps with a mixture of local donations and grant revenue. We were able to offer FREE lessons and instrument rental to any kid in the area. We expanded our offer to 2 youth orchestras and 2 children’s choirs, a summer music camp, tours and 3 annual weekend retreats. Just think how much more ESO Youth could do if ANY member of our local business community showed the same level of generosity as our friends at A-Sharp Painters. Or if state funders & UK foundations would see the success of ESO Youth as a reason to increase their support as those foundations did in Oregon back then. Instead, the view seems to be that “well, ESO Youth is already doing their thing, so they obviously don’t need our money.” Learn more about the growth, development and impact of Playing for Keeps at Oregon Public Broadcasting here.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my adopted home, and there is NO greater privilege for a conductor than to work with British orchestral musicians who, as a whole, are the greatest colleagues in any field anywhere in the world. But it has been deeply depressing to watch one of the greatest musical cultures on earth be systematically dismantled during my time here. Deeply depressing to see music education gutted with nobody stepping forward to support the groups like ESO Youth that are trying to fill the yawning gaps that have opened up. Deeply depressing to see an orchestra like ESO, and our colleagues at ENO, Mid Wales Opera, Britten Sinfonia, Psapha etc, etc, having to fight for our professional lives (a fight many groups have already lost) in spite of doing ‘all the right things’ in ‘all the right places’.

And yes, ACE should (and I think will) do better. But citizens, businesses, universities, foundations etc, need to take ownership and responsibility. How can it be that last year’s Elgar Festival had zero sponsorship from local businesses? Really????

To quote Richard again… This, dear reader, is why we cannot have nice things.

Just yesterday, the Elgar Festival got a grant in support of this year’s festival from ACE. It’s incredibly, amazingly great news, even if it is %40 less than last year and %60 less than we needed. We’ll put on a great festival somehow – that’s what British musicians do. But it’s terrifying to think how easily Elgar’s home city could end up without a festival or an orchestra, not just because of ACE, but because people will just shrug, say ‘what a pity” and let it happen.

Do a dude a favour. If you care about music, share this thread? Maybe make a donation to the Elgar Festival’s Go Fund Me?

Elgar Festival 2024, organized by Sue VoyseyThe Elgar Festival is raising money to help deliver its 2024 iteration 27th May-2nd June. This year we … Sue Voysey needs your support for Elgar Festival 2024https://www.gofundme.com/f/elgar-festival-2024

Or join ESO Digital? ESOD started during COVID as a way to address that crisis by expanding our Friends organisation while providing unique programming to a worldwide audience. Happily, a few dozen people of our 250k/yr+ viewers actually answered the call.  Even that comically meagre result has been ESSENTIAL to keeping the lights on and the flame buring through COVID and repeated disruptions to core funding, but even in all my well-earned pessimism, I thought our number of ongoing supporters would be 10 to 100 x what it actually is. And to those of you who keep that £5/month direct debit going, God bless you all. You’ve helped us move mountains, make music history and change the lives of young people. Maybe you could stretch to £10/month if it’s not a hardship?

ESO DigitalSupport the ESO and get access to previously ‘limited-time’ content, as well as archival material, exclusive music, interviews, digital receptions and more.https://eso.co.uk/digital/

Or, just shrug and politely say “what a pity”….

Do also read this!

Endowments are a good thing, and the UK needs more of them, but they’re only as useful as the boards and administrations that manage them. The recent example of the SFSO losing @esapekkasalonen while simultaneously pleading poverty and sitting on a $300,000,000 endowment just goes to show that money can’t buy sense. Or vision.

The current ESO board is high powered and competent, but not stacked with wealth. 8 or 9 years ago, we had 3 comfortably multi-millionaires on the board. One proudly paid £285 to print some fundraising brochures for us, even after a bunch of musicians and I donate our time to do a ‘donors’ dinner’ (aka private party for his friends” at his house. Another gave £1000 (I think) in support of of a 2015 Elgar project, but then cost us about that much in comp tickets for his friends. And another, who owned some kind of aerospace/military manufacturer never gave anything. In fact, when we had a cash flow crisis around 2016, he grew magic wings and flew the coup faster than a jet plane. He could have pulled us out of the hole for what he’d typically spend on wine in a month.

We’re a long way from the “US model” being a viable alternative to state funding in the UK.

A follow up conversation with Richard yielded some further interesting points

RB: I’d love to see that spirit rekindled here; and would be fascinated to have a discussion about how and why. I do think the government (as I say, any government) could lead from above by incentivising philanthropy – buy a whole social mindset needs to shift, too.

KW: Gov’t’s role is essential! American philanthropy is rooted in the reforms the Progressive mvt instigated in response to the excesses of the gilded age and the robber barons. The government made it hugely to the benefit of the rich that they do their part to benefit society. The rule became “if you want to keep your wealth, you’re going to have to share your wealth, & in ways that society as a whole has decided are beneficial to everyone, not just your reputation or personal passions”. That has eroded in recent years, but it’s the base of it all. This is why all the big foundations got started – it was either set up a trust and give a regular portion to charity in accordance with the law, or have Uncle Sam come for your estate when you’re gone. The interesting thing is that once the very rich saw that generosity. both mad them happy and brought them respect and increased their professional status, they started to donate because they wanted to, not because they had to.

RB The problem here is that the postwar political consensus has been not “we’ll make it worthwhile for you to use wealth well”, but “we’ll take your wealth and we’ll decide how best to spend it: now cough up and butt out”. And for two generations, by and large, they have…

KW Exactly! The genius of those early 20th C. American reforms was to say “we’ll make it worthwhile to use your wealth well….. OR we’ll take your wealth and we’ll decide how best to spend it: now cough up and butt out”. Both carrot and stick! There used to be pretty strict rules about what someone like Carnegie could donate to in order to keep their nest egg safe. These days, those guide rails are largely gone. Why donate to the local kids’ hockey camp when you can give your money to a think tank that lobbies for an end to trust regulations.

RBIt’s a two-way thing though: it’s astonishing how widespread the notion is in the UK arts sector that private money is automatically suspect – even immoral. That’s what we’re fighting here.

KW Yes, I find that mindset quite bizarre. The director of the new music ensemble I used to conduct here said many times he’d rather never hear another note of his own music, or put on another concert again, than accept any private money to support their work.