‘We want to get the nation’s great artworks out of the basement and into our communities’

Lisa Nandy, the UK culture secretary, has pledged to move the government’s art collection “out of the basement and into our communities” as she promised to reverse an “erasure of culture and creativity from our classrooms” under the last government.

Speaking at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in Whitehall this morning, Nandy said: “Over the last ten years, I’ve watched with great sadness as culture and creativity were erased from our classrooms. This is something I am absolutely determined to change.”

Spreading opportunity in the arts across the UK regions, with a focus on secondary school education, will be a tenet of her department, she said: “Talent is everywhere in the UK. But I am acutely aware that opportunity is not. This government will take art back into schools and classrooms across the UK.”

Nandy’s focus on access to art will involve a reassessment of how the government’s extensive collection is used. She said: “The government’s art collection belongs to us all. I am going to lead by example to ensure everyone can see the incredible works of art held in the collection. We want to inspire the next generation of British artists.”

Nandy made the statements while announcing that the British artist Denzil Forrester had won the Robson Orr TenTen Award 2024, a philanthropic initiative from the Government Art Collection sponsored by Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr.

Born in Grenada in 1956, Forrester moved to London in 1967. He came to recognition during the early 1980s for paintings of reggae and dub nightclub scenes in Hackney, London. For Altar, the artist positioned himself on the edge of the dance floor at the Falmouth Reggae Festival in Cornwall, drawing the thronging dancers in real time. To create the etching, Forrester then collaborated with artisans at the Printmakers workshop in the village of St. Erth in Cornwall.

Speaking at the event, Forrester said of Altar: “I’ve shown how light and sound distort the space, and used an aerial view to watch the scene unfold from above. So it incorporates a lot of what I use in my paintings, as well as the brilliant light of Cornwall.”

Editions of the British artist’s new work, a four-plate etching titled Altar that depicts a reggae festival in Cornwall, will now be displayed in UK embassies around the world. Eleven prints will also be available to buy from Stephen Friedman Gallery, which represents the artist globally. Funds raised from the sale of the prints will be used to support under-represented artists in the UK.

Nandy, the MP for Wigan, became the culture secretary in July after the Labour party was voted into power in the general election that month. She held four shadow positions in opposition, most recently shadow cabinet minister for international development, but her CV demonstrates scant experience of the culture sector.

“Touring the government art collection has been a highlight of my first few weeks in this role,” she said. “It’s a treasure trove that reflects the incredible talent we have in every part of our country.

“It’s our intention as a new government that normal people will be able to have the same experience I did, rifling around and being inspired by the incredible works of art that the government owns.”

During the Labour conference in September, Nandy announced that a review of the public funding body Arts Council England would take place under her stewardship of DCMS, but in a recent interview with the Financial Times she said these plans had been paused in favour of a wider review of arts funding in the country.

She also pledged to review how reliant the sector is on philanthropic donations which, she noted, generally go to major cultural institutions in London and other large cities. In her conference speech, Nandy noted that the number of children taking arts GCSEs across the UK has dropped by 47% since 2010.