Art & Class

<p><strong>On a bright autumn day in 1857, the workers from Salts Mill in Yorkshire were waiting for special trains to take them on a day trip.</strong><span> But they were not going to Blackpool: they were going to The Manchester Art Exhibition which attracted 1.3 million visitors in less than six months the majority of whom were mill hands, factory workers and domestic servants. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span>Today less than 8% of visitors to our great galleries are from the working class. When and why did the working classes stop visiting art galleries and why does this matter?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span>Art & Class describes the advent of public art in the 18</span>^th<span> Century, the development of national galleries in London and the explosion of regional galleries, all of which were crowded with working-class visitors. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span>All this came to a halt in 1946 when Keynes and the Bloomsbury Group seized control of the art world by establishing the Arts Council, slashing the countrywide </span><em>Art for the People</em><span> budget and pouring money into opera and ballet.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span>The same metropolitan elite, who established the Arts Council in 1946, still dominate our national galleries. Despite free opening, a range of charging and taxation policies mean that the working classes are not only being denied access to cultural capital but are subsidising the middle classes.</span></p><p><span>Art is a key aspect of cultural capital which middle-class children absorb through visits to galleries and concerts, but which are beyond the reach of working-class parents. This precious commodity opens the door to the elite universities and then on to high-paying jobs but working-class graduates entering the elite professions earn 16% less than their middle-class peers. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span>If the boards of today's galleries were more diverse and had inclusive charging and curatorial policies then, as in the Victorian era, they would attract visitors from all classes.</span></p>