My mantra to myself is that art matters. I need this mantra because the feedback I get from society is that this is not the case, and we can do without it.

It grieves me to read the latest report from the Campaign for the Arts revealing the lack of government funding, a decline in art education and a scaling back of cultural events across the UK, to name but a few ways in which support for and enjoyment of the arts has fallen drastically.

Sadly, the impact of this is most acutely felt in our education system, where our children have seen a decline in art teachers, fewer opportunities for artistic pursuits during teaching hours and a depressing 47% decline in art subjects taken at GCSE since 2010. There is a structural funding crisis in higher education for creative subjects, theatre closures across the country and a steep decline in arts funding, with local government funding having almost halved since 2010. This all means that the UK now has one of the lowest levels of government spending on the arts sector of all the European nations.

As someone who has always worked in creative industries, I feel very strongly that creatives often have the answer to quite complex questions and that art really can change the world.

The Campaign for the Arts are urging the government to deliver a Culture Recovery Fund. Let’s all get involved and ask ourselves: what can we do to support and nurture this recovery?