Community arts organisations are at the bottom of the heap when it comes to Arts Council England's NPO funding, says Linda Strudwick.
Last week the Arts Council of England (ACE) announced its portfolio of organisations it will be supporting for the next four years. This announcement may have slipped under the radar of many news outlets and politically aware pundits as we reel from headlines of Grenfell and general election fall-out. However, I think what ACE is proposing with this new portfolio is overtly political and contributes to the landscape of divisions in our society and the ‘media ready’ glossy stories with no substance.
One thing we all learnt from the recent general election was that austerity is political. Jeremy Corbyn emerged as a genuine figure with integrity as he set out how our nation is divided between the haves and the have-nots. No longer was it possible to hide behind the austerity banner: we all have to tighten our belts… This was spectacularly demonstrated recently when the government ‘found’ an extra £1bn to secure support from the DUP in a hung parliament.
The decisions that ACE have made in funding the arts seems to pale into insignificance with the recent tragic fire at Grenfell Tower. No one can be unmoved by this catastrophic loss of innocent lives on such a large scale. And as more evidence emerges of just how that tragedy took place, we learn that political decisions are brought into question.
Across the country, many people seem to be waking up to fact that decisions, wealth and opportunities lie in the hands of the few and not the many; that the gap between the rich and the poor has never been greater; that the poor and vulnerable in our society are not to blame. So in this sense, how any public funding is spent is political and deserves scrutiny... Keep reading on Heads Together
Last week the Arts Council of England (ACE) announced its portfolio of organisations it will be supporting for the next four years. This announcement may have slipped under the radar of many news outlets and politically aware pundits as we reel from headlines of Grenfell and general election fall-out. However, I think what ACE is proposing with this new portfolio is overtly political and contributes to the landscape of divisions in our society and the ‘media ready’ glossy stories with no substance.
One thing we all learnt from the recent general election was that austerity is political. Jeremy Corbyn emerged as a genuine figure with integrity as he set out how our nation is divided between the haves and the have-nots. No longer was it possible to hide behind the austerity banner: we all have to tighten our belts… This was spectacularly demonstrated recently when the government ‘found’ an extra £1bn to secure support from the DUP in a hung parliament.
The decisions that ACE have made in funding the arts seems to pale into insignificance with the recent tragic fire at Grenfell Tower. No one can be unmoved by this catastrophic loss of innocent lives on such a large scale. And as more evidence emerges of just how that tragedy took place, we learn that political decisions are brought into question.
Across the country, many people seem to be waking up to fact that decisions, wealth and opportunities lie in the hands of the few and not the many; that the gap between the rich and the poor has never been greater; that the poor and vulnerable in our society are not to blame. So in this sense, how any public funding is spent is political and deserves scrutiny... Keep reading on Heads Together