Michael Quine, the UK academic commissioned by the committee to produce a report on their proposals, has concluded that it is not realistic to set a price tag on the strategy as there is no point at which all of its objectives will be complete.
Mr Quine, a senior lecturer in cultural policy and management at City University in London, says that given the current economic priorities in the States, ‘it is not likely that enough money could be found within a known timeframe – from whatever sources – to guarantee complete delivery’.
He also says that the Island’s major cultural providers cannot sustain all of what they do on current funding levels (‘the elastic in some cases is being stretched dangerously far’) and, given States cutbacks, the way forward must be to seek private funds and partnerships from elsewhere.
Rather than predict a total cost, Mr Quine has indicated likely costs for different elements of the strategy, including: £50,000 to give Jersey Heritage Trust responsibility for monuments; about £40,000 to encourage major cultural providers to become learning organisations; £30,000 to £50,000 to support individual artists; and £10,000 annually to use culture to strengthen Jersey’s international profile.
He also concludes that the strategy in its entirety could not be implemented by the one cultural co-ordinator budgeted for by Education.
