Campaign for the Arts

03/09/2026

"The crisis in arts education is not just a story of falling enrolment, but widening inequality." 🗣️

CFTA Director in The Stage today on how the raw figures on GCSE & A-level entries hide an even more serious injustice. Whoever we are and wherever we live, we need the arts in our lives.

That's why we're demanding the new PM make the arts:
🌱 Available from childhood
🔓 Accessible to all
🗺️ Thriving everywhere

✏️ Sign the petition: https://www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/10-year-plan/
👓 Read full article (account required): https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/students-in-deprived-areas-three-times-less-likely-to-take-gcse-drama-data

27/08/2026

15 minutes to protect £billions for the arts – for a generation?

For the first time in almost 25 years, the Government is reviewing how National Lottery funding works – including the 20% share that goes directly to the arts 🎰🎨

Lottery funding built the Tate Modern, the Wales Millennium Centre, V&A Dundee and the Angel of the North. It funds open-access grants that are often an artist's first route into public funding. As core funding for culture keeps falling, this money matters more than ever – and nothing about it is guaranteed.

The consultation closes at midday on Wednesday 23 September. It takes 15 minutes, and we've prepared guidance to help. Link in comments to have your say 🔗

Image Credits:
1 & 5) 📸 Garry Cook 🎈 Gareth White performing Balloonatic 📍 Mercer Hall, Great Harwood, Lancashire
2) 📸 Lamar Francois 🖼️ Derby Theatre Block Party 📍 Stockbrook Park, Derby
3) V&A Museum of Design Dundee © Art Fund
4) 📸 Roswitha Chesher 🏰 Fun Palace 📍 Boundary Estate, East London

20/08/2026

Arts GCSEs: stagnant 🦠

Children deserve an arts education. Sign the petition (link in comments) to help put the arts in the new PM's 10-year plan.

Find full analysis and subject breakdowns in the link in comments too 🧮

13/08/2026

Arts A-levels have hit a record low 🪫

In 2010, roughly 1 in every 6.5 A-level entries was in the arts. Today, it's 1 in 10.

Every single subject we track – Drama, Music, Art & Design, Dance, and more – now accounts for a smaller share of entries than it did in 2010. Drama alone fell 10% this year, the steepest annual fall in our sixteen-year dataset.

The Government has pledged to "revitalise arts education" – but a pledge isn't a guarantee, and we're running out of time.

Sign our petition (link in comments) urging the PM to put the arts in his 10-year plan ✏️

03/08/2026

✒️ "In the decade after free admission was introduced, visits to formerly paid-for museums in London increased by around 151%.

Today, free admission to museums and galleries has come to embody our shared belief that access to art and culture is a right, not a privilege." ✒️

– Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, this weekend

🖼️ 2026 marks 25 years of free admission to the UK's national museums and galleries. Just the kind of ambitious, principled cultural policy we need to see today!

Art and culture are for everyone – no matter where they’re from or how much money they earn

30/07/2026

🗣️ At the weekend, our Director was live on Times Radio with Ayesha Hazarika talking about our new petition.

✏️ We're on 20,000 signatures in 5 days.

🌱 Momentum is growing. Will you keep it going?

https://www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/10-year-plan/

25/07/2026

The new Prime Minister is writing a "10-year plan" for the UK. The arts and culture MUST be part of it.

We've launched an urgent petition to make sure the arts can play their part in revitalising the nation 🌱

Add your name ✏️ https://www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/10-year-plan/

Photo credit:
📸 Garry Cook 🎭 Lancashire Fringe Festival 📍 Preston

22/07/2026

"The arts should be treated like eating your five a day... fundamental to children's wellbeing."

We've tracked the decline in arts GCSEs and A-levels for years. The problems take root in primary school.

We need the arts to be:
🌱 Available from childhood
🔓 Accessible to all
🗺️ Thriving everywhere

01/07/2026

starts today 🌸

Do you like making things? Us too 😎

And this is a great week to do it. Our friends at Create charity have put together 7 free creative activities – from origami to zine-making to writing workshops – designed for anyone, with minimal equipment.

A week of making things, because making things is good for you.

We're in. Are you? Details at https://createarts.org.uk/createweek/

11/06/2026

This week, our Director gave evidence in Parliament on the future of the BBC.

🎙️ "It still connects millions of us to music, to comedy, to drama, to all the arts, and through the arts, to one another."

🫟 As the UK’s largest cultural organisation, the BBC’s unique role in UK arts and culture MUST be central to the Charter Renewal debate.

We’re working to make sure this is the case – from the publication of our report (A Stage for the Nation) through to the government's final decisions that will shape its future for the next decade.