Actor Adeel Akhtar has weighed in on concerns over cuts to arts funding, telling The Independent why it’s vital to invest in young talent.
The 45-year-old made his big screen debut in the 2010 black comedy Four Lions, playing aspiring terrorist Faisal.
On the small screen, he’s appeared in the likes of Channel 4 drama Utopia and the one-off BBC drama Murdered by My Father – with the latter being a starring role that landed him the best lead actor accolade at the 2017 TV Baftas.
Akhtar won a second TV Bafta in 2023, this time for his role in James Graham’s BBC crime drama Sherwood.
Akhtar told The Independent: “I came up through National Youth Theatre and it was a really, really important step in me being where I am now.
“To invest in our young people means that we’re giving them a feeling and a space to be creative and they feel free to explore their understanding of the world and who they are.”
“[Art] gives people a space to really be free,” he concluded.
Akhtar’s comments come as research has found local government arts funding in the UK has plummeted 55% since 2010.
In the UK, arts and cultural organisations are funded by both public and private funding, with cash from government, the National Lottery and the BBC licence making up the former.
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A review of Arts Council England, published today by the House of Lords, found some local authorities have completely cut their culture spending, while the British Council has “curtailed” its investment in the sector.
Meanwhile, Nesta – a UK-wide research and innovation charity that received £250m in government money for a creative arts endowment fund – has pulled out of funding the arts.
The review has been overseen by Baroness Margaret Hodge, who wrote: “The funding picture over the last decade has been bleak.”
The cultural sector is facing “a stark capital crisis, the scale of which is threatening the very fabric of the country’s cultural infrastructure”, she added.
In February, the National Theatre’s director Indhu Rubasingham shared concerns over funding cuts, saying: “Investing in the arts when money is sparse requires courage. Courage to act, because we recognise what lies ahead if we do not. Playing safe will be the end of us.”
A decline in the number of new writers emerging across the UK “risks the betrayal of William Shakespeare”, she added.
Elsewhere, the recent revelation that the National Gallery is facing a £8.2m deficit in the coming year reignited the debate over whether museums and galleries should be free.
