Visiting Artists Visas - Open Letter to Home Secretary

28 June 2011

Over a hundred arts organisations, artists, writers and musicians have signed a letter that appeared in The Daily Telegraph yesterday calling on the government to alter the current visa regulations that dissuade non-EU artists from visiting the UK and which are a burden to large and small organisations alike.

Signatories to the letter include Nicholas Hytner,Director of the National Theatre Nicholas Serota, Director Tate and Tony Hall, chair of the Cultural Olympiad alongside artists Bridget Riley, Mike Nelson and Edmund de Waal and writers Sir Tom Stoppard, Dame Antonia Fraser Pinter , Salman Rushdie and Phillip Pullman.

The letter calls on the government to remove artists from the points-based system and place them in a scheme that already exists for visits to the UK by entertainers for up to six months. This would mean that artists could attend their own exhibitions, writers could be paid fees on book tours and musicians and dancers can be paid for performing in front of a live audience.

Temporary visits by artists don't affect migration, and visiting artists do not take away employment from UK and EU nationals. The regulations as they stand - introduced by the last government in 2008 - are a threat to Britain's longstanding tradition of cultural exchange.

A recent survey by the Greater London Authority confirms the frustration and unhappiness felt in the arts and cultural sector over this issue, 70% of arts organisations in London (both large and small) saying that they have been adversely affected by the current scheme. In a parallel open letter to the Home Secretary which appears on the VAGA, English PEN and Manifesto Club websites, signatories call for an urgent meeting with her to discuss the situation.

Please read the letter.

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