She Wants to Save the Arts in Britain (if She Can Get Elected)

For the past 14 years, Conservative-led governments in Britain said they wanted to maintain the country’s status as a cultural powerhouse, to foster new talent and to keep the home of the Beatles and Harry Potter in the global spotlight.

Their actions haven’t matched those words.

Successive governments slashed subsidies for theaters, museums and opera houses. The number of children studying art, music and drama plummeted. New border rules after Brexit meant musicians struggled to tour abroad.

These days, nobody is talking about “Cool Britannia”; instead, there has been chatter of an arts scene in crisis.

Yet for many artists and cultural administrators, there are hopes that change is coming, tempered by fears that it won’t go far enough.

Following the general election on July 4, pollsters expect that the left-leaning Labour Party will form a new government. If that happens, Britain would not only have a new prime minister in Keir Starmer — a childhood flutist who regularly declares his love of indie music — but possibly a new culture minister who understands the challenges for British artists, because she was one herself.