The Guardian view on a much-needed boost for the arts: rebuilding England’s cultural landscape

The V&A East Museum, which opens its doors for the first time in Stratford, London, on Saturday, is the latest addition to the buzzing East Bank cultural quarter on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This £135m architect-designed V&A outpost is a short walk from the V&A East Storehouse (on Time Magazine’s list of The World’s Greatest Places to Visit 2026) and Sadler’s Wells East, both of which arrived last year. The London College of Fashion has been there since 2024 and BBC Music Studios are due to open in 2027. Art, design, dance, fashion and music – welcome to London’s 21st-century culturopolis.

This once-neglected area of London – “a place where fridges went to die” as Gus Casely-Hayford, the director of V&A East, put it – has been transformed into a creative mecca. But in many parts of the UK the story is one of falling visitor numbers, job losses and the closure of much-loved music venues and art spaces. These architectural palaces are a far cry from many of the crumbling theatres and museums outside the capital (and their well-maintained European equivalents).

It is this creaking infrastructure that culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, hopes to shore up with her Arts Everywhere Fund, a £1.5bn package for cultural organisations over five years, announced in 2025. This week £130m was awarded to more than 130 of England’s museums, theatres, venues and libraries – the largest cash injection into the arts for a decade.

It’s an urgently needed boost for institutions, new and old, big and small. Those benefiting range from Newcastle’s towering The Baltic to the tiny Armitt Museum, home to Beatrix Potter’s watercolours in Ambleside, and from the world-famous RSC in Stratford to the trailblazing TwoCan Theatre Company in Gloucestershire, which provides workshops for people who are deaf, neurodivergent and disabled.

The UK has one of the lowest levels of government spending on culture among European countries, with funding per person falling by nearly a third since 2010. Yet the cultural sector is a wealth generator (an estimated £40bn in 2024) and major weapon of soft power. The arts are increasingly recognised as a source of wellbeing and social cohesion. Welcoming, accessible places where people can share in the joy of music, theatre or heritage can be a lifeline.

It is not just buildings that need financial support. So do the people who bring them to life. The past year has seen protests and redundancies at several of the UK’s most prestigious institutions. Before V&A East has even opened, staff have sent an open letter to the museum directors demanding a living wage for all its workers.

In its first year the V&A Storehouse has attracted 500,000 visitors, many younger, more diverse and local than for its sister institutions. V&A East Museum hopes to do the same. Encouraging new audiences – not to mention artists – begins at school. Investment in arts infrastructure must be accompanied by investment in arts education.

More than a decade of neglect takes time to redress. More money is always needed – and costs are sharply rising. Arts are often seen as an easy target for cuts when times are tough. Arts Everywhere is a cause for celebration, not just for the venues that have benefited directly, but for us all: Nandy has signalled Labour’s commitment to the principle of access to art for everyone. It sends a powerful message that, even in the most difficult times, art matters.

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