Durham’s Lumiere Festival has been a beacon of hope and togetherness, and we can’t let the lights go out on the rest of the arts | Art and design

DOrham is a beautiful small town in the north-east of England and located in an area suffering from growing poverty and inequality. About 45,000 people, cathedral, castle, university and streets glow every two years when the Lumiere Festival fills them with light and art.

Since 2009, Lumière has brought more than 250 artists from around the world to work in this exceptional city. Ai Weiwei in the cathedral chapter house. Fujiko Nakaya on the river bank. Chela Kumari Singh Burman in Market Square. The festival has reached over 1.3 million people, attracted £43 million into the local economy, and involved nearly 14,000 people in community projects. It worked because it was free, exciting and good. A rare combination.

And now it’s over. After 15 years, the lights went out on Lumiere Durham. And with it another piece of the cultural fabric of the United Kingdom.

The arts sector is collapsing. We have lived through decades of neglect. The system it was supposed to support is broken. Artists are overworked, and Arts Council England follows policy rather than shapes it. Government investments in ACE have fallen by 32% in real terms since 2010. Its main grant-making platform collapsed and went out of business for four months this year. When Jaguar Land Rover was hit by a cyberattack, the Treasury stepped in with a £1.5bn loan. When the Arts Council’s website crashed, the government provided technical advice but no money.

Local authorities are also bankrupt. Years of central funding cuts have left them with impossible choices. Social care or sculpture? Bin sets or ballet? We all know what gets dropped when these are the choices.

As we head towards the Autumn Budget on November 26, little has been said about the support that will be given to the arts. Industry bodies and campaigners warn that the upcoming budget could be a turning point. Without targeted investment, many organizations will not be able to survive the next financial year. Business rates relief for cultural buildings is set to end. The Shared Prosperity Fund, which replaced the EU’s regional support, is now ending. Local authorities, already on their knees, face further cuts in real terms.

Meanwhile, the UK’s Research and Innovation Foundation spends less than 2% of its budget on the arts and humanities. Funds and institutions across the country are closing or turning away new applicants to the arts. However, the government has allocated half a billion pounds to fund three major sporting events – the Euros, the Tour de France and the European Athletics Championships – and another £400 million to fund “grassroots facilities”. Culture Minister Lisa Nandy said: “Sport tells our story in a way that few other things can.”

I would strongly argue that it is the arts that tell our story. It helps us understand who we are and is what always connects us across time and space. In Durham, for a few nights every couple of years, the streets are filled, not with division or anger, but with light and laughter and quiet awe. People stand side by side, strangers together, looking up. This is what art can do.

So why did Lumiere end?

It would be easy to blame Durham’s new reform-led council. But the previous Liberal/Conservative coalition began this process. This government has just reduced scholarships for trainee teachers in humanities. The reality is that no political party is committed to the kind of investment required to keep an arts and cultural environment alive, despite the huge returns in financial and cultural value.

So where does the real error lie? With all of us. With the failure of the arts community to convince politicians and the Treasury that art is not a luxury but a public service. And with the broader public that does not make this an electoral issue.

The numbers are there in spades. The arts and culture industry contributes more than £10 billion annually For the UK economy and £2.8 billion a year to the exchequer through tax alone.

You can and should calculate jobs, exports, ROI and audience numbers. But you can’t measure what you feel when you stand in a crowd and are moved, nor can you measure amazement or inspiration or joy. This is what we lost.

We talk about “financing” as if it were a favor. it’s not. It is an investment in imagination, shared experience, and our national story. We invest in trains, hospitals and clean water because we know they are essential. Art is also essential.

The budget later this month could show whether the government understands this or not. Sector leaders are calling for a new national plan to restore the arts. Not charity, but public investment on par with sport or science. Even a small commitment would send a signal that culture matters, and that it is part of how we rebuild our economies and societies.

This argument appears to have been lost long ago with Whitehall. But not in Durham, it seems. The people there understood. They came, year after year, in the rain and the cold, to stand together in the light, united by art. Now the lights are out, what’s left? Flags and banners?

Unless something changes, Lumiere will not be the last to be wronged.