£2.1m clean-up for Coventry City of Culture

17 Feb 2020

Coventry will get a £2.1m cleaning before City of Culture events begin next year.

New skip collections will be provided to curb fly-tipping, graffiti will be tackled, weeds whacked and every city street swept if Coventry City Council's budget is approved next week.

Councillor John Mutton said he was "embarrassed" of some areas of the city, saying they were in a "pretty appalling" state.

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The council has already allocated £1m to strengthen counter-terrorism measures.

Fringe promoter offers to fund 'artists of colour'

17 Feb 2020

An Edinburgh Fringe Festival promoter is offering funding to help artists of colour perform at the event.

The Pleasance says the £10,000 funding pot will be used to support shows where at least 50% of its creators and 50% of its cast identify as artists of colour.

Director Anthony Alderson said: "I really hope this paves the way for ensuring the Fringe is an even more open community and making sure important voices are heard."

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The initiative was created by Edinburgh Unviersity student Jessica Brough as a response to "the scarcity of shows by people of colour at the fringe, across categories, and the disproportionate promotion and support they receive in contrast to productions by either entirely or majority-white performers."

Jewish Museum London withdraws from National Portfolio

14 Feb 2020

The Jewish Museum London has withdrawn from Arts Council England's National Portfolio to focus on reviewing its business model.

It will continue to receive the same level of funding plus an additional £100,000 to explore new options. It will not have to meet the monitoring and strategic targets expected of National Portfolio Organisations.

Its Chief Executive Abigail Morris has also stepped down. The museum is recuriting for an interim CEO.

READ MORE: Jewish Museum London pulls out of portfolio amid financial struggles

Who is Oliver Dowden? Meet the new Culture Secretary

14 Feb 2020

Dowden’s record suggests he will focus more on the digital part of his portfolio than culture.

Scotland’s Budget: culture funding at a standstill

13 Feb 2020

Future arts funding depends on National Lottery returns rapidly increasing when a Government cash injection expires next year.

Sector victory as council pulls ad for 'volunteer community artist'

13 Feb 2020

Wiltshire Council says it now knows asking for experienced, skilled and pre-vetted volunteers “was not the right approach”. 

Watchdog halts StubHub-Viagogo merger

13 Feb 2020

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has the ticket sellers from integrating their businesses so it can investigate the proposed merger.

StubHub and Viagogo announced the planned US$4bn merger in November. But the CMA says it has “reasonable grounds for suspecting that it is, or may be the case, that arrangements are in progress" already.

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Senior representatives of StubHub and Viagogo must report to the CMA fortnightly to prove they are still distinct businesses. The companies must also maintain separate sales and brand identity.

 

Contemporary art gallery closes

13 Feb 2020

Contemporary art gallery Blain|Southern will close all three of its galleries, its Founding Director has announced. 

Harry Blain and Graham Southern opened the original gallery in London in 2010, expanding to Berlin in 2011. A third site in New York was opened last year.

Blain released a statement on Wednesday night that says: "I deeply regret that I have been unable to secure the gallery’s future long term.

"It was an honour to collaborate with so many talented artists and build an exhibition programme that reflected and celebrated the breadth of contemporary art practice worldwide."

Fears for 'flatlining' Yorkshire arts funding

13 Feb 2020

Yorkshire arts groups fear "flatlining levels of funding" are contributing to the decline of its rural communities.

Fifteen arts organisations wrote to Arts Council England ahead of the release of its new strategy to warn that only 2.5% of National Portfolio funding goes to rural areas. Rural organisations are also hobbled by deeper cuts to local authority budgets and lower levels of philanthropic giving compared to towns and cities, the organisations say.

Rural Arts Chief Executive told The Yorkshire Post that North Yorkshire communities "are so often expected to travel long distances to access high quality culture".

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"This contributes not only to the demise of vibrant rural communities but creates access barriers, now that over 75 per cent of our buses have been cut, and has a significant carbon cost."

Night Czar paid £1k to host Borough of Culture event

12 Feb 2020

A political opponent has accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan of “cronyism” after his appointee and friend received money from the city’s culture budget.

Boyce to represent UK at Venice Biennale

12 Feb 2020

Artist Sonia Boyce will be the first Black woman to represent the UK at the Venice Biennale.

The British Council announced on Wednesday that Boyce, known for her highly innovative and experimental approach, will present a new solo exhibition at Britain's pavilion in 2021.

Boyce said: "You could have knocked me down with a feather when I got the call to tell me I had been chosen.

"Obviously, I’m extremely honored, excited – and nervous. I’m eager to start this creative journey, exploring the experience with others who agree to work with me along the way.”

 

 

ACE to survey diversity of classical music sector

12 Feb 2020

Arts Council England is launching new research into the diversity of the classical music sector and workforce.

An advisory group is seeking survey input from instrumentalists, teachers and other professionals on how to break down the barriers to change.

ACE's Director of Music Claire Mera-Nelson says the sector is making moves to address its lack of diversity but the overwhelming public perception is that "there are significant barriers to participation, and the pace of change is too slow".

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"For the first time we will have the evidence needed to properly understand the challenges musicians from diverse backgrounds face, and our options for moving forward."

ACE's survey can be found here.

Irish Arts Council to set pay rates

12 Feb 2020

Ireland's Arts Council will institute minimum pay rates for artists on funded projects.

The agency has developed a three-year plan to develop sector-led pay rates and scales for artistic work. It will make them part of the assessment criteria for all funding applications by the end of 2022.

Its strategy mirrors that of the Arts Council of Wales, which announced last year it would no longer fund organisations that don't commit to paying minimum rates "at the very least".

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A policy document released yesterday says the nature of arts practice leaves artists "particularly vulnerable" to exploitation: "We want artists to be confident, to know their worth, and to feel more empowered in negotiation and contracting stages of professional engagements. We intend this
policy to play a part in encouraging artists to expect fair and equitable treatment. 

"The distinct nature of individual artforms and their associated sectoral or industry practices means there are significant differences in how pay and contractual issues manifest themselves across different artforms and arts sectors. However, we assert that certain best practice principles can be applied to
most engagements."

Ballet boss sacked for firing new mother

12 Feb 2020

A French ballet boss has been fired after he dismissed a dancer for having a baby.

Lyon Ballet's board unanimously voted to remove Yorgos Loukos, the company's Director of 33 years, last week. He has been ordered to pay ballerina Karline Marion €5000 in compensation for firing her two days after she returned from maternity leave.

Loukos told municipal authorities that he fired Marion, then 34, becuase of her "physical and stylistic weaknesses". She had worked for Lyon Ballet for five years.

Marion recorded a conversation with Loukos in which he said: "If between the ages of 29 and 34 you did a fair bit, though not a lot, you are not going to do much more between 35 and 40, particularly with a child."

Southbank Centre barred from heritage status

11 Feb 2020

Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan has barred several Southbank Centre buildings from being granted heritage status.

Efforts to get Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery listed have been ongoing since the 1960s. However, Morgan turned down an appeal last week and issued a 'certificate of immunity', which prevents the buildings from being listed for the next five years.

READ MORE: Madani Younis leaves Southbank Centre after less than a year

She decided the Southbank Centre was "not of sufficient architectural or historic interest to merit listing" on the advice of Heritage England.

This is a departure from the heritage authority's previous opinion that the buidlings, built betweeen 1963 and 1968, should be included on the national heritage list.

 

‘No strategy or infrastructure’ for Welsh music

11 Feb 2020

There is a bigger audience for Welsh music than ever before, but a lack of long-term thinking means there aren’t venues, promoters and services to support artists.

Failure ‘key to success’: Lewisham and Croydon win London Borough of Culture title

11 Feb 2020

The coveted year-long cultural festival is “finally coming to south east London” in 2021 and to Croydon in 2023.

Northern Irish artist sues Dublin gallery

10 Feb 2020

A Northern Irish artist is pursuing legal action against a Dublin gallery and its owner.

Belfast portraitist Colin Davidson wants his former friend Oliver Sears to return "a substantial body of artistic works", relinquish any claim to selling his art, and remove all references to him from the Oliver Sears Gallery website.

Davidson's lawyer Peter McGrath told The Times: “Our client very much regrets having to take this legal action but believes he has been left with no alternative as all attempts to resolve the matter prior to litigation had proved unsuccessful."

Sears is an art dealer and 100% shareholder in the gallery.

First foreign language film wins Best Picture Oscar

10 Feb 2020

'Parasite' has made history as the first foreign film to win a Best Picture Oscar, as well as the best international film and original screenplay categories.

The South Korean satire from Bong Joon-ho, who won Best Director, also won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It is the first time a film has achieved both honours in 65 years, the last one being Delbert Mann's 1955 romantic drama 'Marty'.

Only 10 foreign-language films have previously been nominated for best picture.

The win was a surprise in an otherwise predictable ceremony, and may mark a shift in the academy's approach following debate over the awards' inclusiveness in recent years.

 

Swindon saves arts funding, cuts gallery upgrade

10 Feb 2020

Four Swindon arts organisations have been given reprieve from plans to cut their funding entirely - but an upgrade to the local museum and art gallery has been canned.

Swindon Festival of Literature, Prime Theatre, Reach Inclusive Arts and Create Studios were spared by Swindon Borough Council, which had proposed cutting all their funding in its recent budget. However, about £5m allocated for an upgrade to Swindon Museum and Art Gallery will instead be used to improve the M4.

The way the council administers funding to the arts will change: instead of making grants, the council will commission services from arts organisations.

Councillor Dale Heenan said the change was necessary.

"We want to support these organisations but if we keep this money as grants we’ll be having this discussion every year. This way puts these services as part of our statutory responsibilities, not our discretionary ones."

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