Margaret Hodge will oversee a review into regional inequality in the arts after the culture secretary described some areas of Britain as “cultural deserts”.
Sky News first reported a week ago that Hodge, who was last week named as the government’s anti-corruption champion, would take control of the review into Arts Council England, which was originally announced by the Conservative government and was to be chaired by Mary Archer but was shelved shortly after Labour won the general election.
The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the review would be the first step on the journey to “restoring people’s connection with the arts and culture in every region of the country”.
Nandy said: “No matter your background or the place you live, we should all be able to experience the joys that dance, theatre, music, museums, even borrowing a book from a library brings.
“For too long only the privileged few in select parts of the country have been able to have access to high-quality arts or to believe a career within them was possible.
The original review was tasked with finding out whether the body could find cost savings of 5% while also assessing the “ambition and quality” of projects it funds.
Hodge’s review is focused on the lack of arts facilities and resources in some areas of the country that Nandy has described as “cultural deserts”.
“It will look at whether delivering through the Arts Council is actually working, whether it needs to change its way of operation, and whether we need to tighten its remit,” Nandy said at a select committee hearing for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport last week.
She added that she had told the Arts Council that the next round of national portfolio organisation funding should “do far more at working with local organisations to fund what is already there in communities, to be able to grow and expand”.
Nandy has discussed the importance of a diverse cultural sector several times since her surprise appointment, which came after Thangam Debbonaire, who had been the shadow culture secretary, was defeated at the general election.
Last week she told the Guardian that the British TV industry must diversify to survive, with only 8% of workers in the sector coming from working-class backgrounds, and pledged to get some of the 15,000-piece national art collection “out of the basement and into communities”.
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She also said the Conservatives’ “violent indifference” to the arts had resulted in communities across the country getting poor access to culture.
Hodge said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be asked to lead the review of the Arts Council. I am passionate about the rich contribution the arts can make to all of us, as individuals, in our communities and to the economy.
“I look forward to engaging with the Arts Council and with a wide range of stakeholders across the country as we consider the challenges and opportunities the Arts Council faces.”
Hodge will be supported by a yet-to-be-confirmed advisory panel, while the government has extended Nicholas Serota’s tenure as chair of the council by 18 months to “maintain stability” during the review process.
