[Margaret Pilkington]

Well, I am the product of a northern Mill town......during my childhood we listened to classical music....including opera. My mother was an accomplished pianist, my father played the violin and both of them worked in the weaving mill......this despite the fact that my mother speaks 13 languages(7 of them fluently).
Art is a very personal thing....some people like Ballet, some opera......some like to view sculptures/visual art....but in the real world, we sometimes have to choose necessities over luxuries.

Let me pose a question to you......If you were the father/mother of a sick or disabled child, where would you like to see the funding go? To a childrens facility/hospice/respite centre or to some Art project??
To me, the answer is a no-brainer.

Don't make assumptions about the good folk of this town......just because we are from an industrial area, which over the years has not had the funding for the luxuries of Art,(and what has been funded has bordered on the ludicrous) does not automatically mean we are all philistines.