FIRST OFF . . .

Hundreds of artists and their supporters staged a National Arts Advocacy Day in London Wednesday and warned that theaters, museums and other institutions are being “squeezed to death” by government cutbacks. The demonstrators rallied at the South Bank Arts Center, home of the Royal Festival Hall and the National Theater, before heading to the House of Commons to urge lawmakers to be more generous with funding for the arts. John Bowis, a legislator for the governing Conservative Party, said they would have to exert “huge pressure” because the arts were of little interest to most members of Parliament, or MPs. “The last time I initiated a debate on the arts there were about 40 MPs present out of 650” in the House of Commons, he said. Speakers accused the government of underestimating the value of the arts to British life and as a revenue earner. Since Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives won power in 1979, government financial support for the arts has fallen by 19%, said Simon Crine, director of the National Campaign for the Arts, which organized the events. Total government spending this year on arts and libraries, including the 19 national museums, is officially estimated at $1.3 billion, of which $707 million is for the arts alone.