Thread by @Joannechocolat

Given we're talking about this today, let's make today's #TenTweets about PROTECTING THE ARTS. Follow the hashtag to collect them all - and feel free to add your own, because there are a hell of a lot more than ten...
#ReasonsToProtectTheArts

1. The arts in the UK are a massive industry, earning billions of pounds for our country's economy, and employing millions of people. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

2. The creative arts are very far-reaching, including all areas of publishing, design, music, theatre, film, dance, games, textiles, fashion, museums, crafts, architecture, and more. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

3. It's one of the areas in which we are actually truly and genuinely world-beating. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

4. And yet, when we talk about the arts, we often meet the same ignorant responses: jobs in the arts aren't "proper jobs"; creators are "arty-farty"; art is elitist, etc. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

5. The truth is, everyone benefits from our rich and varied creative arts industry. Whether people are aware of it or not, they are using it and benefiting from it every day. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

6. And there are other reasons to treasure the creative arts outside of the economic benefits they bring us. The arts are filled with new ideas. And ideas can take you anywhere. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

7. The arts are the foundation of a healthy society. They drive the leisure industry, bringing people together and making human connections. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

8. People working successfully in the arts have often trained for many years to achieve excellence: they constitute an investment of talent that we need to recognize and keep. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

9. Consuming art stimulates the brain. It encourages empathy, independent thought, imagination - all the things this Government fears most. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts

10. Art has always been an expression of the self. Totalitarian governments have always made it one of their first tasks to try to control or suppress the arts. Art is resistance. #ReasonsToProtectTheArts