Sue Isherwood highlights the ongoing crisis in local authority funding for the arts.
Arts organisations and workers have got the message from central government that the arts are expendable when politicians decide there are more votes to be won from promising better hospitals and schools and stronger immigration controls. In December and January there was much coverage in the press of the standstill funding for Arts Council England (ACE) over the next two years, a settlement which its chairman, Christopher Frayling said represented a £30m cut. Although a deal has been negotiated with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport which allows ACE to reallocate Creative Partnership funding, there are arts organisations that have recently discovered that standstill for them means major cuts. They are not the large national companies, but some of the vital smaller theatres and arts organisations that ensure access to arts for all communities across the UK. And this is the same set of organisations that is also reliant on local authority funding.
Currently local government puts more money into supporting the arts infrastructure than ACE does. Not enough people know that and not nearly enough people realise that this area of arts funding is even more in danger than central funds. Local government budgets have only just been set, so what these settlements mean for arts funding is only just becoming apparent for 2005/06. The National Association of Local Government Arts Officers (nalgao) has been aware of the difficulties of maintaining funding levels for some time. This year it has conducted a survey of arts budgets with its members across England and Wales, which makes for alarming reading. About half of budgets are at standstill, and a third are being actively cut. The picture is similar from large urban to small rural authorities and also represents a continuing trend. Over the previous two years cuts had occurred in 30% of authorities with 45% receiving standstill, and more than 50% are predicting cuts in the next few years. To our knowledge eleven local authorities have dispensed with their arts services completely since 2003. If two years? worth of ACE standstill funding represents a £30m cut in public support for the arts, then this local authority dis-investment must count for double that.
At the same time, we know that arts services are very efficient at helping local authorities achieve their corporate targets in such areas as social inclusion, healthy communities and services to young people. Our research also shows that arts investment provides strong leverage with £4.50 earned for every £1 invested. We know this, but the message is not being heard loudly enough at local and national levels. Nalgao?s annual conference is a major opportunity for members and like-minded colleagues to network, exchange ideas and plan for the future. It will not surprise anyone that this year?s conference theme is ?Making the Case for Arts? and that we will be concentrating on how strongly and loudly we can get the message across. We will be examining the range of local authority practice, listening to and debating with a powerful set of speakers and workshop leaders, including John Holden and Robert Hewison from Demos, Professor Max Atkinson from Henley Management College and Professor Hamish Fyfe of the University of Glamorgan.
?Making the Case for the Arts? is hosted by Cardiff City Council in the St David?s Hall concert and conference centre, from 3-5 May. For full details and booking information
or contact Pete Bryan,
e: nalgao@aol.com;
t: 0116 267 1441