Author: Hutchison, Robert

Publication Year: 1979

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Paper presented at First International Conference on Arts and Economics, sponsored by the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 8-10, 1979. Comment by Anthony Field appears on p. 63-66.

Abstract:

Paper presented at First International Conference on Arts and Economics, sponsored by the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 8-10, 1979. Comment by Anthony Field appears on p. 63-66.

We are all creative, imaginative, artistic, to a certain extent but few of us have been given or have taken the opportunity to discover our talent, writes the author of a recent book on drama in schools (Allen 1979, p. 10). Public subsidy since the Second World War has been essential for the emergence and survival of a great number of arts organizations of all kinds, but one seldom hears any talk of opportunity cost in all the discussions of arts subsidy.

But as public subsidy for the performing arts developed after the war, the poorer classes had little inclination toward the recreation and instruction provided for them at subsidized theaters. Yet the pricing policies continued to reflect earlier obligations and the accompanying assumption that lower prices in theaters result in considerably more socially diverse audiences. After a thousand and one nights of audience surveys, and in A. B. B. (Anno Baumol and Bowen) 13, such an assumption is no longer tenable, and was always somewhat naive: While low prices do diversify the audience to some extent, they do not metamorphose the performance into art for the people. Even at free performances the audience is relatively well educated, of relatively comfortable means, and is composed primarily of members of the professions (Baumol and Bowen 1966, p. 284).

It is not being argued that sizable increases in seat prices will solve the problems of the subsidized theatre; indeed, it is right to assume when dealing with a commodity which is not an essential that price increases have to be approached with extreme caution. Nor is there any suggestion that for theater managers optimizing pricing policies is not among the most complex and challenging of their tasks, which entail a whole range of both tactical and strategic decisions about how, if at all, the house should be divided; the number of different schedules; sales outlets employed, discounts, subscriptions and so forth. And, of course, VAT has compounded the problems.

What is being argued is that seat prices in Britain have been low on almost any remotely relevant comparison, and that only if one sees no use for public subsidy for other arts activities can one rejoice unequivocally in this fact; that if the theater-going public not only can but will pay more for seats, particularly at the top end of the scale, then these further increases are desirable. (p. 56-57).

Notes. References [bibliography].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Creative Economies