A third of leaders in Britain's top arts organisations were privately educated, according to an analysis by the Guardian that has prompted warnings of a 'rigged system' preventing working-class talent from thriving. The survey of 50 organisations receiving the most Arts Council England funding found that 30% of artistic directors and other creative leaders were educated at private schools, compared with a national average of 7%.
More than a third (36%) of chief executives or executive directors also attended private schools, while 17.5% of artistic directors and 26% of chief executives were alumni of Oxford or Cambridge universities, against less than 1% of the general population. Andy Haldane, chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, said he was 'shocked by that finding but not especially surprised'.
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight said the perception that the arts are unattainable discourages working-class people. 'I think the real problem is that working-class people look at the arts and think this isn't something that people like me do,' he told the Guardian. Director Shane Meadows noted that schemes and courses open to him as a young artist have 'vanished from so many places'.
Actor Michael Socha, who started at Nottingham's Television Workshop, described feeling intimidated by the elitism in film and TV. Happy Valley showrunner Sally Wainwright recalled her father saying 'people like us don't become writers'. The warnings come as arts enrolment in state schools has plummeted, with GCSE arts entries down 40% since 2010 and a 23% decline in arts teachers.
