A charity which assists people with limited mobility in getting access to London art spaces is being forced to close after exhausting its funds fighting an unfair dismissal case.

The charity, Access to Art, will be shut down at the end of this month and its two full-time employees will be out of a job as a result of an ongoing dispute with a former employee.

Jane Turner, director of Access to Art, said: “We’re closing because one of our employees is filing a claim for unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal and the charity has used all its funds in defending it.

“It’s incredibly sad and our members are in bits,” she said.

The charity works with around 200 disabled and older people who otherwise would have difficulty in accessing art galleries and spaces in London. Turner said there is no alternative service for the beneficiaries.

Turner added that data protection regulations mean that the charity will have to destroy information about all its members “so we can’t even bring it back to life at another time”.

According to the latest Charity Commission records, Access to Art had an annual income of just over £100,000 for the year ending 31 March 2009.

Turner declined to expand on the details of the unfair dismissal case as it is still ongoing.

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Unfair dismissal claim forces closure of arts charity

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