Visual Arts and Galleries Association

REALISE your right to art

"REALISE represents a powerful notion with an ambitious agenda setting vision"
Baroness Lola Young, OBE, REALISE Launch, Nov 2005

"This campaign is about changing hearts and minds, but with plenty of evidence that the visual is a vital component of life in this country, and is a crucial component of the future of this country, not just in terms of a knowledge economy or the creative economy, but in terms of our intellectual and spiritual welfare as we move forward into the 21st century."
Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, REALISE - Launch, 28th November 2005

REALISE your right to art is a long-term campaign to place art and visual culture at the centre of peoples lives, influencing public policy and the political debate to create a society where everyone can be critically empowered and creative citizens of our increasingly dynamic, diverse and globally-connected world.

At its heart is the insistence that everyone has their right to participate in culture and to enjoy the arts, as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. REALISE proposes that action must be taken to realise this right in full, employing our currently wastefully underutilised cultural capital. As a signatory to the Declaration the British Government has a duty to make this ambitious aspiration a forceful reality and, in doing so, significantly increase the quality of everyone’s lives.

THE REALISE STATEMENT

Imagine a new cultural and social landscape

As citizens, we have a right to housing, education and health. Shouldn’t all of us also have the right to a share in the rich visual culture of the nation? Shouldn’t all of us have the opportunity to flourish as visually literate and creative citizens throughout our lives?

Realise your right to art

We live in a compelling, complex and dynamic visual world. Art lies at the core of culture, yet, despite its power to ignite our senses and provoke our thoughts, it remains wastefully detached from the lives of too many of us.

If everyone’s right to art was realised, it would

• Bring personal enrichment, through enjoyment, inspiration, knowledge and the challenge of the unpredictable.
• Build the vital role that artists can play in the life of the nation, of communities and of individuals.
• Increase the depth and scope of our understanding of other cultures and of one another.
• Give people the chance to develop creative skills fit for the 21st century and contribute to the growth and diversification of the economy and the imaginative regeneration of communities.

Art at the heart of society

If we begin now to put art at the heart of society, in ten years time:

• Everyone will have the chance to experience and enjoy the very best in art, no matter where they live.
• All children and young people will have opportunities for making art, and for sustained and high quality creative engagement with visual culture.
• Visual and design literacy will be recognised as essential to everyones personal development, no matter their age or circumstances.
• Artists will be acknowledged as the pathfinders and visionaries that they are, generating new and challenging thinking about the present and the future.
• All new communities and regeneration schemes will have art and high quality design at their core.
• All galleries, museums and visual arts organisations will be hubs for cultural, social, creative and artistic development and learning, with programmes, commissions and collections which reflect, celebrate and examine the abundant diversity of our past and present.
• With visual culture relevant and immediate to everyones lives, the national conversation about the unexpected and inspirational nature of art will be open to all.

Its time to realise everyone's right to art

Realise your right to art represents a powerful and expanding alliance, committed to influencing the development of policies that will lead to long term cultural, educational, social and economic change.

To endorse the Realise Statement and to receive updates on the Realise programme of advocacy, research, critical debate and policy development, email: signup@righttoart.com

Realise is a cross-sector initiative led by VAGA, The Visual Arts and Galleries Association. For further information email: realise@righttoart.com

To view latest signatories and download a the REALISE Statement and commissioned artwork by Simon Tegalea visit http://www.vaga.co.uk/index.php?main_section=58

REALISE your right to art steering group:

Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery
Maurice Davies, Museums Association
Vicky Dyer, Independent Political Adviser
Stephen Foster, Director John Hansard Gallery, Hilary Gresty, Director VAGA
Peter Jenkinson, Cultural Broker, VAGA Associate
Keith Khan, Director Rich Mix
Andrew Nairne, Director Modern Art Oxford (VAGA Chair)
Andrew Wheatley, Cabinet Gallery
Erica Bolton, and Quin Public Relations