MPs to investigate Arts Council England funding decisions

Arts Council England Chief Executive Darren Henley
27 Nov 2022

Department for Digital Media and Sport Select Committee will hold an evidence session with Arts Council England's Chief Executive Darren Henley next week.

Responses to ACE National Portfolio funding expose systemic racism

Weighing scales balancing North against South
24 Nov 2022

ACE has pulled off a coup in racial and geographic equity. Kevin Osborne says now we need to fight to prevent any reversal of this progress.

MPs slam ACE’s 'shameful' funding decisions

23 Nov 2022

MPs from across the political divide call for government intervention on Arts Council England's investment plans, suggesting the organisation has 'gone rogue' and labelling its attempts to redistribute funding outside London as 'crazy tokenism' and 'shameful'. 

Good causes funding sees record return

23 Nov 2022

The arts will benefit from a record return in Good Causes funding after The National Lottery announced its highest ever sales for the first six months of the 2022/23 financial year.

Total lottery sales increased to £4,063.9m over that period, breaking the £4 billion mark for the first time in the 28-year history of The National Lottery and outperforming last year’s total by £102.5m (+2.6%).

The half-year success has been attributed to record digital sales.
 
Good causes funding – of which the arts receives 20% – totalled £956.5m, an increase of £72m (+8.1%) on last year.

This takes the total generated for Good Causes since The National Lottery launched in 1994 under Camelot to £47bn.

Czech lottery business Allwyn will take over Camelot’s lottery contract in 2024 and has previously said it will increase the amount the arts receives through Good Causes funding.

“In this hugely testing economic period, I am proud that my team’s remarkable performance builds on previous years of record ticket sales and returns to Good Causes – and extends our track record of delivering for people across the UK,” Camelot Chairman Sir Hugh Robertson said.

“With just over a year to run until the start of the next licence period, I am confident that The National Lottery has never been in better shape.”

Welsh National Opera to cease performances in Liverpool

22 Nov 2022

Welsh National Opera has announced it will no longer tour in Liverpool because of cuts to its Arts Council England funding.

The company, which receives National Portfolio Organisation funding from both ACE and the Arts Council of Wales, has had its ACE grant cut by 35%, a drop of £2.2m.

WNO General Director Aidan Lang said: "Our decision to withdraw from performing in Liverpool is regrettable, but has been carefully considered, taking into account a wide range of factors which will help us to make cost savings without impacting the quality of our work." 

WNO has been touring to Liverpool since 1968, first at the Royal Court and from 1976 at Liverpool Empire Theatre.

The decision means that 2023 productions of 'Blaze of Glory!', about a miners' choir set in the 1950s, and Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' will no longer be performed in Liverpool.

Other tour dates in Cardiff, Llandudno, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Birmingham, and Southampton will still go ahead. 

Fewer than three million visited Unboxed in person

22 Nov 2022

A £120m celebration of British creativity attracted a total of 2.8 million visitors, newly published audience data shows.

As well as 2.8 million people visiting free live events for the Unboxed festival, 13.5 million accessed digital and broadcast content and 1.7 million took part in learning, volunteer and community participation activities, organisers claim.

The headline figure includes the television audience of a special edition of the BBC programme Countryfile broadcast last month, which featured a 15-minute segment of content created by Unboxed.

The figures fall significantly short of a “stretch target” of 66 million set by the festival’s chief creative officer, Martin Green, who recently left Unboxed to run next year’s Eurovision song contest in Liverpool.

The National Audit Office is currently conducting an official probe into the value for money provided by the government-funded festival - widely dubbed 'The Festival of Brexit' - following a critical report by the DCMS Select Committee which concluded that the investment was "an irresponsible use of public money".

Stuart Andrew, the Minister for Sport, Tourism and Civil Society, said the festival had “taken culture to the doorsteps of millions in communities right across the UK” and “inspired people who attended events, got involved online or watched on TV”.

Since February, 10 free Unboxed projects have opened across the UK. These include a decommissioned gas platform called See Monster in Weston-super-Mare and a trail through the solar system called Our Place in Space in Northern Ireland, Liverpool and Cambridge.

Operators of Nottingham Castle set for liquidation

21 Nov 2022

Nottingham Castle has closed to visitors after the trust responsible for its operation revealed it is about to enter liquidation. 

The Nottingham Post reports that Nottingham Castle Trust has started the process of appointing liquidators. 

A statement published today (21 November) by the trust's board said: "We are saddened and hugely disappointed to announce that today, Nottingham Castle Trust has begun the process of appointing liquidators. This is a heartbreaking day for trustees, our staff, visitors, and the city.

"Despite the immense dedication of staff and volunteers, the Castle is now closed to visitors."

Nottingham Castle reopened in June last year after a three-year renovation. The £30m project, which was partially funded with £8m loaned from the city council and £13m from a lottery grant, saw a new visitor centre and cafe added, with existing galleries refurbished.

Controversial PwC contract has 'commercial exploitation' clause

18 Nov 2022

Under terms of audience data contract issued by Arts Council England, permission could be granted for information collected by PricewaterhouseCoopers to be 'commercially exploited' by the consultancy firm in the future.

Henley defends ACE funding decisions

16 Nov 2022

Amid protests against Arts Council England decision to cease funding a range of organisations through the National Portfolio, Chief Executive Darren Henley stresses the importance of 'taking culture where it hasn't been before'.

Opera in need of a collective voice

Paraorchestra playing in streets of Bristol
16 Nov 2022

As the dust settles on ACE's announcement of its new portfolio, Mark Pemberton unpacks the numbers to see what the outcome is for orchestras and opera companies.

Parliamentary committees moot alternatives for arts funding

15 Nov 2022

Reports from cultural committees call for UK and Scottish governments to innovate new ways of funding arts and culture through the cost-of-living crisis.

Jeremy Hunt urged to support orchestras in Autumn Statement

15 Nov 2022

The Association of British Orchestras (ABO) has called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to put in place measures to support the UK’s orchestral sector in this week's Autumn Statement in the wake of cus to funding from Arts Council England (ACE).

Judith Webster, Chief Executive of ABO, said she is “deeply concerned” by the impact of the removal of some organisations from the ACE's National Portfolio and “significantly reduced” funding for others.

“We are particularly concerned with our members working in opera and contemporary music, where the biggest funding reductions have fallen,” she said. 

“Continued support for our sector is particularly needed at a time when orchestras are still in the early stages of recovery, rebuilding the confidence of live audiences and dealing with the headwinds from the cost-of-living crisis and Brexit.”

The ABO has urged the Chancellor to use Thursday's Autumn Statement to extend the temporary 50% uplifted Orchestra Tax Relief, which is currently due to reduce to 35% from April 1 next year and return to 25% on April 1, 2024.

“An extension to the 50% rate is the critical measure which will allow UK orchestras to rebuild income streams and plan confidently for the future,” Webster said."

NPO analysis: City of Culture bidders see funding uplifts

Bradford projected onto city building
14 Nov 2022

Most of the English towns and cities that applied to be the next UK City of Culture will see their amount of funding increase in the new NPO round. 

Call for ACE chair to resign over ENO cuts

11 Nov 2022

Chair of Arts Council England Sir Nicholas Serota should resign over the decision to cut funding from the English National Opera (ENO), a former Director of Productions has said.

In a letter to The Times Sir David Pountney, who was at ENO from 1982-93, described plans to withdraw ACE funding as "brutal and irresponsible".

"There is an argument for rebalancing cultural funding between London and the regions but this requires serious planning," he said.

"The fate of several hundred employees and an institution with a history of 90 years is not to be decided so arbitrarily."

Pountney added that there was no evidence the suggestions by ACE that ENO could potentially be relocated to Manchester had been seriously considered.

"There have been no discussions with Manchester’s existing cultural bodies, let alone with Opera North, which already performs in Manchester, nor any analysis of the necessary investment to create a venue in Manchester appropriate for a national opera company," he said.

"Slashing the money first and considering the resulting options afterwards is totally unprofessional. 

"Sir Nicholas Serota should not have put his name to such a procedure, whatever the pressure from the government (what happened to the 'arm’s length principle'?) and should resign."

Speaking earlier this week on the proposals Serota said that ACE was faced with "some very difficult choices" in making its funding decisions. 

"We decided that we should not spread the misery across every company in the country," he said.

"We should actually identify those companies that we thought could survive a withdrawal of their funding and on which we had faith that they had the ability to respond."

Fresh delay for Creative Scotland's new funding framework

09 Nov 2022

Creative Scotland has announced a further delay to the introduction of its new Future Funding Framework, which is intended to replace its current funding approach for organisations.

Announcing the decision, it blamed financial challenges facing arts organisations, uncertainty around the funding it will get from the Scottish Government and "the realistic prospect of serious budget reductions" for the delay.

Introduction of the multi-year funding programme will be delayed by up to 12 months, with April 2025 the new date given for it being in place.  

It said that instead, a "refreshed Open Fund for organisations" will launch early 2023.  

Creative Scotland said that, "budgets permitting", funding for the current 120 Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) will continue at standstill levels for 2023/24 and 2024/25.

It added that there will be "ongoing flexibility" in the use of existing regular funding, plus "a possible short-term RFO supplementary fund using National Lottery resources (funds permitting)".

This supplementary funding for RFOs will be made available "as soon as is feasible" after the Scottish Government confirms Creative Scotland’s budget for 2023/24.

NPO decisions: Changes in regional funding distribution

08 Nov 2022

The North of England and Midlands see notable increases, while London retains the largest share of the funding pot despite cuts.

NPO decisions: ENO 'baffled and shocked' by funding cut

08 Nov 2022

Arts Council England's plans to cut English National Opera funding and move organisation out of London have been described as 'an absolute travesty' by its chief executive, as petition to reverse the decision launches.

NPO decisions: ACE promises 'flexible' funding terms

Arts Council England Chief Executive Darren Henley
07 Nov 2022

As contractual negotiations over National Portfolio funding deals begin, Arts Council England suggests organisations may be required to do less for the money in light of cost-of-living pressures.

Levelling down London

Let's Create image
05 Nov 2022

The reallocation of such a significant slice of ACE funding away from the capital has caused shock. But it was always part of the Let's Create strategy.

NPO reaction: Sector responds to ACE’s new national portfolio

ACE NPO graphic with image of orchestra
04 Nov 2022

Arts Council England’s new national portfolio brings both relief and disappointment. Here's a taste of the sector's online reaction to the decisions.

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