£6m additional Lottery funding for libraries, says the Arts Council. This fund will support projects that stimulate ambitious and innovative partnerships between libraries and artists and/or arts organisations, encouraging communities to participate in cultural activities.
At a time when libraries all over the country are closing because their core grants are being reduced, the Arts Council is pushing a growth agenda of ambitious and innovative projects (sorry, partnerships - a much more buzzy phrase) designed to encourage communities (not people?) to participate in cultural activities.
Funny, we thought that libraries had something to do with cultural activities already: reading books. They have been involving artists - a.k.a. authors - for years. Can they not, one day, get their priorities right: survival first.
