News – Consortium impact queried

The London Cultural Consortium (LCC) has so far proved to be merely a talking shop and is neither achieving its formal objectives nor fulfilling its potential according to a report just published by the London Assemblys Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee. Institutional contributors to the Committees review included the Barbican Arts Centre and British Museum, as well as The Royal Academy of Arts which said, We are not aware of the consortium, or what has been achieved in the first year.
Unlike the regional cultural consortiums in each of the other English regions, which receive £215,000 a year directly from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), LCC receives no government funding. The report recommends that the consortium should be made independent of the Mayors office, and given appropriate staffing, support and resources to carry out its work, funded by the DCMS. It also proposes that LCC should formally review the Mayors cultural strategy for London and draw up an annual work programme to implement it, producing an annual report on progress.