Arts Council slashes funding for London
Arts Council to invest extra £170m outside London for small groups that ‘look like their communities’
The Arts Council has cut funding to the nation’s leading arts organisations and allocated the money to smaller companies outside London with a commitment to diversity and disadvantaged communities. The Royal Opera House, National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company have all taken a three per cent cut, with the Southbank Centre accepting a four per cent reduction.
THE Arts Council has cut funding to the nation’s most eminent arts organisations and allocated the money to smaller companies outside London that can demonstrate a commitment to diversity and disadvantaged communities.
The Royal Opera House, National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company have taken a 3 per cent cut, with the Southbank Centre accepting a 4 per cent reduction. All said the decision placed them under financial pressure.
The biggest losers include Hampstead Theatre in north London, where Harold Pinter tested many of his plays. The Arts Council said its funding was being brought into line with other theatres of a similar size, but Hampstead’s artistic director, Edward Hall, said the 14 per cent cut “swings a wrecking ball” into its plans for the future.
The museums of Oxford and Cambridge universities were also confronted with significant reductions in funding, of 10 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.
New organisations admitted to Arts Council England’s national portfolio for the first time include Paraorchestra, the world’s first professional ensemble of disabled musicians; Ballet Black, which aims to bring dance to a more culturally diverse audience; Luton Car- nival, an annual family event; and the Rural Media Charity, which makes digital arts projects about disadvantaged countryside communities.
The “Big Four” organisations agreed to take a hit for the greater good, according to the Arts Council chairman and former Tate chief, Sir Nicholas Serota. They can also tap up wealthy donors, he added, something smaller companies are unable to do.
“This is about national organisations recognising that they can only really flourish if the whole ecology flourishes,” he said. “These are organisations that are each in receipt of really substantial funding. And they are also organisations that have made great progress in raising funds. They are in a position to go to trusts and foundations and benefactors.
“And they have all agreed to this. We took a view about what they might be able to afford to let go, and we immediately came to an agreement with them.”
However, the Royal Opera House chief executive, Alex Beard, said the company will face “undoubted challenges as a result of this funding cut, and will have to find ways to reduce costs”. The National Theatre said making up the shortfall “will not be easy and it puts even greater pressure on box office, fundraising and commercial activity”.
Arts Council England will fund a total of 831 organisations from 2018-22, and invest an additional £170 million outside London. Manchester International Festival’s funding will rise by 1,123 per cent, from £729,000 per year to more than £9million per year. The money will go towards a new building and exhibition space.
Diversity was at the forefront of the funding announcement, with organisations required “to look like their communities” in terms of ethnic minority make-up, gender and disability.
Darren Henley, chief executive of Arts Council England, said: “Diversity is absolutely central to what we do. We’ve done a lot to put this at the heart of our thinking and I’m very proud of the steps we’ve taken.”
Towns and cities including Plymouth and Stoke-on-trent will get increased investment. English National Opera, once placed in special measures by the Arts Council, is now back in the fold with a deal amounting to £12.4 million a year. Twenty-four organisations have been dropped from the list.