News

Arts groups to close after losing Arts Council core funding 2

Fundraising | Vibeka Mair | 29 Mar 2012

More than one in ten arts groups are closing as a result of losing their core funding from the Arts Council this week, according to new research from The Stage, a weekly newspaper for the performing arts industry.

The Stage contacted the 206 cultural organisations who were told last year that they would lose all their regular funding from the Arts Council England (ACE) at the end of March 2012.

The Stage gathered 151 responses to its survey after contacting the 206 organisations directly except in the case of organisations that have already closed.

More than one in ten said they would be closing as a result of the funding loss. A further 22 per cent of respondents described themselves as “at risk of closing”. Only 16 per cent rated their financial situation as healthy.

The 206 organisations will lose a combined total of £19.1m per year when their core funding is cut at the end of the week. Almost half of respondents (46 per cent) said their organisation was “just surviving”.

Dance companies are suffering most from the cuts, with 36 per cent of respondents in this field saying they are closing. None of the respondents from the dance sector described themselves as healthy financially.

In addition to the cuts to their ACE funding, 30 per cent of respondents from all sectors said they were also facing reductions to their local authority grants. This “double whammy” of ACE and local council cuts has been one of their biggest concerns.

More closures possible

Brian Attwood, editor of The Stage, said: “The bleakness of these statistics is all the worse when one bears in mind that these closures were a pre-emptive response to losing ACE funding, they do not follow it.

“We must prepare for the possibility that, over the next year, these early closers will be joined by others whose determination to continue has proved to be in excess of the resources at their disposal or whose revised business plans will offer no defence against their altered circumstances.”

In their responses to the survey, many organisations said they had been forced to make staff redundant. Others have had to move out of their premises or change their business model to save money. Several respondents said that losing ACE funding affected their ability to generate funds from other sources, as ACE support is perceived to be a benchmark of a well-run organisation.

Some organisations said they were still unsure why they had lost their funding.

Alan Davey, chief executive of Arts Council England, said: “The Arts Council has never funded all the art that takes place in this country, nor do we have the means to do so.

"It’s always a difficult decision to stop funding an organisation but faced with an almost 30 per cent reduction in our budget for the arts, we had some hard choices to make. Some organisations we might have chosen to support in other circumstances did not receive funding but, by the same token, it’s important to remember that 110 organisations will receive regular funding for the first time from this April.

“It is inevitable that with a cut to our budget, coupled with an equivalent cut in local authority funding, some organisations would not be able to manage. This is sad, and no attempts to summarise trends can take away that fact. Given the difficult context it is heartening that closures of organisations that lost core funding are still in the minority. Well over half the respondents are battling on despite tough conditions, producing good work and seeking alternative sources of funding, including from us. That is testament to how determined artists in this country are to go on doing what they do for the benefit of audiences.”

Arts Council capital investment fund

Elsewhere, Arts Council England has announced 26 organisations, including the Southbank Centre, that have been successful in the first stage of its new large-scale capital funding programme.

The majority of the 26 projects focus on the refurbishment or extension of existing arts buildings, and range from the replacement of critical equipment to large scale renovations and improvements. The Arts Council proposes to invest just over £114m in this first round of the fund, its first new capital investment fund in nine years.

Read a full list of successful stage-one applications.

Directory: Arts Council England | Southbank Centre