A long standing cultural and education charity in Greater Manchester has cancelled its forthcoming shows after Arts Council England (ACE) cut its funding.
Oldham Coliseum Theatre yesterday announced that it will be cancelling its upcoming events from 26 March onwards as “the current financial situation is not sustainable for the season as planned”.
The charity previously applied for £615,182 a year over three years, totalling £1.8m. Having relied on the funding for decades, this means that its current business model could be at risk.
It is among many other charities including Hampstead Theatre that suffered funding cuts as part of ACE’s latest funding round.
Overall, 990 organisations will receive a share of £446m each year from 2023 to 2026. Some 276 organisations were not previously receiving funding from ACE.
Risk of closure?
Oldham Coliseum Theatre said its trustees and senior leadership team have been working hard to address the funding shortfall.
“The theatre put the pantomime on sale in November and announced the Spring-Summer season in early December with the best possible intentions, while still exploring options that may have enabled the continuation of the programme,” it wrote in an online statement.
“However, the current financial situation is not sustainable for the season as planned. We’re working with ACE and Oldham Council to honour agreements with artists and producing partners.”
As a result, the charity cancelled all shows beyond 26 March, saying that it will refund ticket holders over the coming weeks.
“Any donations made to the theatre when booking tickets for cancelled events and our coliseum members whose memberships are due to expire after 26 March will also be refunded,” it added.
“It has been an incredibly difficult decision to cancel the programme of events and we understand the disappointment this will undoubtedly cause. The coliseum asks audiences to be patient whilst staff work through each refund transaction manually.”
Hampstead Theatre: Funding loss is ‘tragic’
Hampstead Theatre, a London-based charity with an income of nearly £3m, said it was effectively losing £766,455 a year in ACE funding.
It said in December that it would have to “change direction” and could no longer operate solely as a new-writing theatre. This, in turn, pushed the charity’s artistic director, Roxana Silbert, to step down.
The charity wrote in statement: “Hampstead has long been one of the UK’s foremost new writing theatres, with a 60-year track record of commissioning, developing and producing new plays.
“It’s tragic that a leading writers’ theatre, having launched so many careers over the years and created work that has been enjoyed across the UK, should be treated in so summary a manner.”
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