Points Based Immigration System Adversely Effecting Artists and Intercultural Exchange

9 March 2009

The immigration Points-Based System (PBS) which came in to effect last November is already having a detrimental effect on the freedom of artists to come to the UK for exhibitions, residencies, talks, conferences, performances and projects.

This is at time when the creative industries are a growth area, when intercultural understanding is of increasing importance globally and the arts as a source of individual enrichment and enjoyment provide a counterbalance to the uncertainties of economic recession.

The bureaucracy is complex,costly and time-consuming and by default discriminates against artists in the developing world and smaller organisations and projects in the UK that are unable to absorb the additional burden. To quote Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery "It can't really be what government wanted, but what we have now is this totally unintended effect. We still have plenty of cultural exchanges with artists across the EU, and even within the Commonwealth, but the real excitement of the last decade has been the growing number of artists coming from other countries and developing direct relationships with smaller venues and companies.

It is of huge benefit here, and one hopes it is of benefit to them too." Observer 22 February

Joan Bakewell writing in The Times made the case “ Britain is seen as a global hub for arts activities. It is here that artists from across the globe come to perform, to meet each other, to share cultures. Such exchanges and their impact on cultural understanding may do much to allay the very security risks that the latest visa regulations are targeting. Fewer and simplified regulations are now essential.”

VAGA supports the call to the Home Office to review the regulations and has endorsed a petition to Parliament

"that these Home Office restrictions discriminate against our overseas colleagues on the grounds of their nationality and financial resources, and will be particularly detrimental to artists from developing countries, and those with low income. Such restrictions will damage the vital contribution made by global artists and scholars to cultural, intellectual and civic life in the UK." which can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/MCvisit/petition.html

Testimonies from artists and academics can be found at http://www.manifestoclub.com/visitingartists

Top artists battle visa clampdown

Antony Gormley is leading major arts figures in an attack on security controls which prevent star international performers from entering the UK

* Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
* The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009
* Article history

Leading figures from the art world, including Antony Gormley and Nicholas Hytner, have launched a campaign to reverse stringent visa controls which they claim are preventing top foreign musicians, actors and artists from visiting Britain. They say that immigration laws introduced last year are restricting artistic freedom and have called on the Home Office to review them. One example they give is that of the virtuoso Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov, who cancelled what was to be his second performance in this country at the Southbank Centre in London when he could not provide the documents required for his planned visit in April. "This country has always been a hub, an airy place where people from all over the world could come and express themselves in art," said actress Janet Suzman, one of the signatories of a petition calling for the Home Office to look at the rules again.

"This legislation stamps on all that with a clunking, hobnail boot." The visa legislation has tightened up the requirements for all professionals travelling to Britain from outside the EU in order to perform or take part in an arts event. Artists must now not only show proof of their identity, including fingerprints, but also show they have an established sponsor happy to take full financial responsibility for them and to vouch for all their activities while on British soil. Small organisations must pay a fee of £400 to become an official "sponsor", while larger groups must pay £1,000. "It can't really be what government wanted," said Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, "but what we have now is this totally unintended effect. We still have plenty of cultural exchanges with artists across the EU, and even within the Commonwealth, but the real excitement of the last decade has been the growing number of performers coming from other countries and developing direct relationships with smaller venues and companies. It is of huge benefit here, and one hopes it is of benefit to them too."

It is a nightmare of confusion, increasing cost and finicky detail that is threatening the vibrancy and spontaneity of the whole arts scene in Britain. Put simply, the getting of visas for artists to enter the UK is getting more costly, more complex and more time-consuming... all of which runs entirely against the way arts institutions - theatres, orchestras, festivals - actually function.