The arts are some legit witchcraft, & this is scary. To acquire technical proficiency in a plastic, literary, or performing medium is to gain the ability to press on other people's imaginations & feelings. This is a deep power, which can be developed further with time & training.

Consequently, it is no surprise that people in power would like to ensure that the only people able to access that time and training are those already embedded in and benefited by the status quo. This has been an explicit and ongoing campaign for many years.

This campaign to keep arts skills elite is staged as a faux concern for the real needs of the masses, as if it were art and not rich people keeping most people poor. But poetry is not a luxury.

And by the way, this renewed attack on arts and humanities is 100% consistent with that "SHAPE" bullshit that UKRI rolled out about 20 minutes ago.

No one who is actually trying to support a field does it by giving them a new dweeby acronym.