News

Arts Council England (ACE) is offering a £42,000 contract to produce advice for UK museums on repatriation.

Practical guidelines are "an appopriate first step" in response to increasing debate over this area of work, the contract tender says.

"This work will also inform ACE's policy and strategy on this rapidly developing agenda and help identify further potential further actions for ACE and other sector bodies to support museums, facilitate ongoing dialogue and promote best practice across the sector."

Some voluntary sector organisations in Scotland will have to consider redundancies if the country does not confirm its budget, a leading union has warned.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) says delays to the budget announced after the General Election are causing "significant challenges for organisations who recieve annual funding from the Government", including many arts and cultural groups.

"We are continuing to take action to seek assurances from a wider range of Government departments and public bodies ... Reducing the uncertainty, wherever possible, is one of SCVO’s top priorities over the coming weeks and months."

The inaugural London Climate Change Festival will bring together contributors from the arts, science and business worlds to "explore ways to live in better harmony with our planet".

Producer Janie Dee said she was encouraged to take on "possibly difficult" conversations about the issue after watching her son protest against climate change last year: "we as individuals can make a huge difference if we have help and focus."

The event will take place at Charing Cross Theatre from March 23 to May 16.

Cuts to arts and culture funding are straining organisations' non-artistic operations, according to Arts Council England.

Recently-released minutes from a September meeting say real-terms reductions over the past decade are "having an impact in areas like site maintenance, investment in future technologies, staff training and staff recruitment", particularly in specialist areas like finance, catering and IT.

This was despite optimism about "improved forecasts" for arts funding, which manifested last month as a 1.84% increase to National Portfolio Organisations' funding for 2020.

Council members "felt it was important that Arts Council England continued to make a strong case for arts and culture in the run up to the 2020 Spending Review", the minutes note. A date for the government's multi-year review is yet to be announced.

Research from The Stage found people of colour made up just 8% of leaders at the 50 highest-funded theatres in England - among all but one, their Executive Directors are white.

The survey of these 50 theatres also found:

• Men held 69% of artistic director positions in 2019
• There were 16 female artistic directors, up from 14 in 2014 and 2009
• The number of women in executive roles has grown 35% over the past decade
• Women now outnumber men in executive director roles at 65% of that group

A pilot will explore the appetite for small-scale dance theatre in South East England by touring three shows to eight venues.

The project from house, a network and touring initiative delivered by Farnham Maltings, will launch in March with a performance of Lost Dog’s Juliet and Romeo at Norwich Playhouse.

The other participating venues are: The Mill Arts Centre (Banbury); Hertford Theatre; Luton Culture; Arts at the Old Fire Station (Oxford); Guildhall Studio (Portsmouth); The Curve (Slough); Worthing Theatres.

The project is being supported by The Place, Pavilion Dance South West’s Surf the Wave project and South East Dance.

The government has announced £85m of investment in school music, film, dance, theatre and design projects.

School standards minister Nick Gibb said charities educating young people about different styles of music - In Harmony, National Youth Music Organisations and Music for Youth - would receive £1m. Cultural education programmes run by Heritage Schools, BFI Film Academy, Museums and Schools, the Arts Council England Bridge network, National Youth Dance Company and Saturday Art and Design clubs will share £4m.

Music education hubs, which give pupils access to instruments, will receive £80m. The DfE had confirmed in November that the scheme would continue to be funded in 2020/21 with an allocation of about £79m.