The government's preferred way to fund the arts is to follow the philanthropic model so favoured in America.

According to Government figures at the moment we give on average £6 per head to cultural organisations a year while people in the United States give closer to £37.

Our guest editor Sir Victor Blank also believes in philanthropy and is a strong supporter of the Oxford Philomusica orchestra, long independent of regular government funding, and sees it as a model to follow.

Nicola Stanbridge reports.

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