Mind the closing doors

Many arts managers in England have been caught unawares by the closure of the Sustain fund. The short notice given – from the announcement on 1 October to the closure 8 days later – has come as an unwelcome surprise, though it also provoked a late surge in applications, with 41 received. Arts Council England (ACE) was praised for ‘doing something’ about the recession, and those who have received funds are grateful and relieved. (AP200). However, ACE’s response to our questions is disingenuous to say the least. If regional officers have been advising people to ‘wait until the second year’, there must have been an understanding that there was to be a second year. ACE’s original press release, back in April, said that “the programme will run initially over two years, 2009/10 and 2010/11”. It is now saying that the fact that money will be “spent over a two year period” means the same thing. Large numbers of arts organisations will have been under the impression that applications would have been possible during 2010/11. It is more evidence that, as one arts manager told us, “since day one, the information about this fund has been erratic, conflicting and incomplete”. ACE has assured us that the spread of grants will be seen to be fair once they have all been decided: obviously the cash is limited and ACE can only respond to the applications it receives. However, those applications have now been abruptly stopped at source, and questions are still being asked about how the money has been deployed. ACE says it has further plans to help organisations during the economic downturn. We await them with interest.

Olympic reactions

We’ve had a lot of comment about Sam Li’s piece in our last issue (‘The 2012 whitewash?’, AP203). One reader thought it “hilarious”, adding “it’s great to know satire can still find purchase in the grips of an economic recession”. Another was shocked by the LOCOG board members’ remuneration, “especially… the £500 hourly wage being paid to Princess Anne – don’t we pay her quite a lot already? £500 looks like a good weekly wage to most actors.” Something that still rankles is that the Olympics were partly won on the basis of the cultural offer, without the cultural community having brought on board in advance. Meaningful consultation prior to the bid might have helped to capture hearts and minds, and to give the sports establishment an inkling of how the arts sector works. The sports world’s reaction to the shortlist for ‘Artists taking the lead’ will be instructive. Spiral mounds, floating water mills and bee-keeping may sound like exciting projects to us, but could prove incomprehensible to athletes.