A newly-published summary of the activities of Arts Council England?s Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) for the years 2002/03 reveal mixed fortunes for different artforms. Overall, the number of performances and exhibition days by RFOs increased marginally in 2002/03 from the previous year, though attendances at these events decreased overall by 3%.
Combined arts, dance and theatre all lost audiences, but the opposite was true for visual arts, music, and film, video and broadcasting. Five sectors ? combined arts, dance, music, literature and visual arts ? reported increases in earned income, and all sectors had increased Arts Council subsidy, including theatre with an increase of 15%. Total subsidy per attendance increased on average by 10% to £10.25, but at the six national companies ? the Royal Opera House (including Royal Ballet), English National Opera, Birmingham Royal Ballet, South Bank Centre, Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company ? where total attendance at performances or exhibition days and workshop-related sessions added up to 4.7 million, subsidy per attendance was much higher at £18.88. Almost 35,000 toured performances and exhibition days were undertaken by the organisations participating in the survey, with 80% of these taking place in England. The East Midlands received the largest amount of toured work, and the Yorkshire and the North East regions the least.
A statistical survey of regularly funded organisations 2002/03 is available online from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk