Gordon Brown puts FACT as heart of 'Cool Britannia' plan

Feb 13 2008 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL’S groundbreaking Fact arts centre will be at the heart of Gordon Brown’s plans to revive the moneyspinning “Cool Britannia” spirit of the 1990s, it has been revealed.

The Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (Fact), in Wood Street, will be picked as one of six organisations to act as a “hub” for creative businesses across the region.

Fact will be given cash by the UK Film Council and the Arts Council to develop better links between art and technology, building on pioneering work that it already does.

It will link up with similar pioneer-ing theatre and technology com-panies in Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle and Bristol, under a strategy to be unveiled later this month.

Full details of the plan – part of a wide-ranging arts strategy to make Britain the “world’s creative hub” for everything from fashion to film – are still under wraps.

But a leaked draft says: “Digital technology has changed the film industry and, if nurtured and developed, can contribute to the development of communities and cities.”

Picking out Fact as one of the six centres to be “re-tooled”, it continues: “The UK Film Council will develop media venues to act as a hub for creative businesses.”

The idea is that, rather than com-peting with those other five centres, Fact will co-operate with them, to enable Britain to compete with the rest of the world.

Officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are thought to have been in talks with Fact for many months about the role it will play.

But last night, the centre declined to comment before the plans are unveiled. A DCMS spokeswoman said the proposals had been “significantly developed” since the initial draft.

Founded in 1988 – when it was called Moviola – Fact is widely recog-nised as the country’s leading organi-sation for the commissioning and presentation of film, video and new media art forms.

It boasts it has commissioned and presented over 100 digital media artworks, with artists including Mark Wallinger, Barbara Kruger, Tony Oursler and Isaac Julien.

The green paper, to be published by new Culture Secretary Andy Burn-ham, will be seen as marking a return to Labour’s close alliance with the arts world under Tony Blair.

The draft reveals Mr Brown and Liverpool-born Mr Burnham are determined Britain should reap the economic benefits of outperforming other European countries in the creative industries.

The plans also include giving children “rights” to five hours of culture each week, through activities, music lessons and visits to galleries and theatres. Creative apprentice-ships will be set up for 1,000 people.

However, Ed Vaizey, the Conservative arts spokesman, said: “This reads more like a Stalinist five-year plan than a vision for creative industries in the years ahead.”