Arts and museum cuts - a suitable response?

On the day the bankers stuck two fingers up to the nation there was a good post on the Guardian culture blog about Barnet council locking Arts Depot protesters out of the North London Business Park on Monday.

Journalist Charlotte Higgins contrasts the dismal fate of the arts in Barnet and the UK with the feteing of Damien Hirst's latest abomination:

a human baby skull cast in platinum and encrusted with 8,128 pavé-set perfect diamonds, 7,105 natural fancy pink diamonds and 1,023 white diamonds.

Meanwhile, back on planet hoi polloi, Higgins tells us that as well as potentially losing its £194,000 Barnet council funding, the Arts Depot could lose grants worth £130,000 from London Councils. Arts Depot director Nigel Cutting is reported saying:

"If [the cut] goes through, Barnet will be one of the largest councils in the country to spend nothing on the arts. A local authority area with twice the population of Oxford at least deserves a degree of arts provision."

View the consultation document that outlines the Arts Depot cut here. You have until 17 January to let Barnet know what you think of it via the survey.

The consultation on the proposal, effectively, to close Barnet Museum and Church Farmhouse Museum is also running till 17 January. Access it here. Again there is a survey to complete.