Funding cuts will be one of the key areas of debate at tomorrow's State of the Arts conference in London, the second annual gathering which this year will include speakers such as arts minister Ed Vaizey, Liverpool culture boss Phil Redmond and artist Mark Wallinger. And dozens more besides.
Also there will be shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis who will call on leading figures in the arts world to make their voices heard.
He will also propose a covenant between strong arts organisations suffering the least and those which face being ravaged badly by the cuts.
Lewis will tomorrow say:
"Arts organisations cannot be immune from the difficult choices which are necessary to reduce the deficit. But the scale of the cuts is disproportionate and the Conservative-led government has shown a cynical indifference to the cumulative impact of cuts being made by a variety of public bodies. They are also taking no account of the link between public investment in the arts and commercial success, jobs and growth.
"It is time for all those who care about the arts, irrespective of their own organisation's status, to speak out against the scale and impact of the cuts on both excellence and access. Despite his pre-election promises, Jeremy Hunt has turned out to be the keenest cutter in the Cabinet.
"It is also right, in a sector which promotes the values of community solidarity, that the strongest organisations should now make support for the biggest losers from the cuts a top priority.
"I want to see a new covenant which demonstrates that "we are all in this together" has true meaning across the arts sector.
"This covenant would not be about propping up poor quality, inefficient organisations but supporting high quality arts projects which through regional or community location, lack of voice or inequality will suffer the most serious cuts."
The implication seems to be that prominent figures in the arts - the leaders, perhaps, of organisations not facing the worst of the cuts - are not shouting loud enough. Is he right?
