We want to restore integrity, quality and pluralism to the arts and media.
The culture industries are seriously unwell. They have caught a social contagion from academia that nobody in the noughties could have foretold. Identity politics - critical race theory, gender ideology and a hefty dollop of Marxism - have leached from the lecture halls of Britain's universities into gig venues up and down the country, and onto the stages of music- and literary-festivals. They are broadcast routinely on our screens in the guise of heavily didactic dramas, and in virtue-signalling awards acceptance speeches. They spill onto the pages of books.
They appear in the social media of talent, corporate arts staff and small arts business-owners alike, turning digital social spaces into the machinery of extremist propaganda and disinformation.
Activists have infiltrated corporate infrastructure, warping hiring and firing practices and ensuring the only staff and talent who enjoy any real freedom of speech are those who vocally adopt illiberal progressivism. Those outside the Venn diagram of 'virtue' face bullying, constructive dismissal or cancellation by stealth for lawful beliefs.
Meanwhile, the music, literature, TV and film, theatre and visual arts now coming through to the mainstream are often heavily politicised in a way that was previously unthinkable. Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions and anti-Zionism abound, alienating British Jews and punishing the entireity of a democratic ally state on spurious grounds. Gender ideology is pushed onto the public, whether it wants it or not, with age inappropriate activist content aimed at children as young as two. Once niche political offerings are now on the main menu.
The BBC, the Arts Councils of England and Wales and Creative Scotland, are using taxpayer money to promote social justice campaigns, rather than solely broadening access to excellent art for all. Our national broadcaster has been found to transmit disinformation to the public in its news service, and it is claimed that activists inside the organisation are influencing policy to the detriment of impartiality, pluralism and public trust. The result of all this is societal polarisation and the rise of populism at both ends of the political spectrum.
The arts and media are the glue that unifies a nation. Culture Together seeks to offer practical solutions to rebalance this sector and in doing so, restore excellence and unity to Britain.
Who is behind Culture Together?
Marnie Riches is the founder and CEO of Culture Together. Her first career as a professional fundraiser included securing corporate sponsorship for national educational initiative, ‘Science-Year’ and youth charity, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. In the course of those fifteen years as a fundraiser and corporate sponsorship expert, Marnie raised £10 million for good causes, including the arts.
In more than a decade since her award-winning crime-thriller debut, The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die, published, she has become a bestselling contributor to the genre, with five critically acclaimed series and hundreds of thousands of books sold in the UK alone, also translated into 10 languages. She has written children's fiction as Chris Blake and also pens historical fiction as Maggie Campbell. Over many years, Marnie has gained an encyclopaedic knowledge of the publishing industry in particular.
Marnie has taught creative writing at Cambridge University and continues to teach in universities and schools as a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.
