£100,000 in city arts cuts on the way
GALLERIES AND THEATRES HIT AS COUNCIL TRIMS BUDGET
ARTS organisations in Nottingham are facing funding cuts on an “unprecedented” scale as the city council seeks to balance its books over the next three years.
Five organisations in the city are set to be affected by the move which is part of a drive to save more than £100,000 from local cultural groups, including the Nottingham Contemporary and City Arts galleries.
The New Art Exchange in Hyson Green, Nottingham Playhouse and the prized Unesco City of Literature project could also be affected, it has been confirmed.
The Post understands all five groups have received letters detailing the proposed budget cuts, which will be debated at a full Nottingham City Council meeting in early March.
They could be facing cuts of up to 37 percent.
If approved the leaders of each art centre will be faced with what one source described as an “unprecedented challenge” in finding ways to cope with such a drastic cut in funding. Each organisation will have to find alternative ways to plug the shortfall, or to negotiate with the council for a less severe reduction.
Helen Kennedy, professor of creative and cultural industries in the department of cultural, media and visual studies at the University of
Nottingham, said: “It’s another really very big hit to a sector that’s already been so damaged by the pandemic.
“We can understand this is in the context of the wider economic constraints and the wider fiscal damage.
“But to cut the arts at the moment when they’ve been so severely damaged, and when we’ve had such compelling evidence of the value for people’s wellbeing and identity and sense of place – their sense of hopefulness and the way they’ve turned to arts and culture during the pandemic – it seems a bad moment to take them out at the knees.
“It’s a savage blow to the cultural life of the city. Arts are a driver of economic prosperity.”
Commenting on the cuts, Councillor Dave Trimble, portfolio holder for leisure and culture, said: “Like many councils, we are unfortunately having to look at reducing some of our contributions to outside organisations as we work to balance our budgets after many years of substantial cuts to our own funding.
“We make contributions to a number of local cultural organisations and our proposals would see the fund for these reduce overall by £107,000 to £176,011 for 2021/22.”
The move is part of widespread proposals to reduce spending across virtually all areas of the council’s books.
Among the cuts being proposed are plans to reduce the number of Community Protection Officers (CPOS) from 100 to 80, and bring in charges to use the public toilets on Greyhound Street off the Old Market Square, in a bid to save £15.6 million in the 2021/22 budget alone.
None of the affected five arts organisations had responded to our request for comment by the time this edition went to press.