Any time now, Arts Council England is due to announce its criteria for the capital funding programme for the next three years, writes Judith Strong.
The first round set aside £90m with a ceiling figure of £5m. The next round is likely to reduce the overall amount, reduce the ceiling figure, and tighten the criteria. What will those who make it into the next round be able to achieve?
In 1996, the Theatre Royal in Winchester was awarded a grant of just over £2m which enabled it to undertake an extensive programme of improvements and refurbishment. The building itself had started out as a hotel. It was turned into a theatre in 1914 but then run mainly as a cinema until it closed in 1974. The Winchester Theatre Fund, a charitable trust, was formed, bought the theatre in 1978, and then set out on the long road of keeping the building going. In 1995, faced with buckets on the stage whenever it rained, it was recognised that major work was required.
The Lottery grant enabled the Fund to look beyond the immediate needs and address some of the underlying problems. A competition was held and architects were appointed to turn ?an inaccessible collection of cluttered spaces into a workable new theatre?. The Fund had previously bought two neighbouring terraced buildings and these provided the opportunity to create a new entrance, rationalise the front-of-house areas, match up levels and improve access. A new back-stage block was added plus a small rehearsal room which functions as a meeting room/ education space/and overflow changing area. The raked stage was levelled and sprung. The control room was rebuilt, ventilation services introduced into the auditorium and the balcony re-raked to improve sight lines and leg space. The improvements allowed the theatre to continue in operation. Equally important, in the longer term, it has been able to extend its range of productions and activities. This has helped draw in much younger audiences.
A very different type of project is about to start on site ? the Rich Mix Centre, a new initiative spearheaded by Cityside Regeneration and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, to celebrate the diversity of London?s cultural life. Two redundant post-war commercial buildings will be converted and extended to house a visual arts space, a three screen cinema, performance and rehearsal space, and a permanent base for two arts and training organisations, Community Music and the Asian Dub Foundation. The Centre will also include an IT suite and digital archive for the East End, plus affordable workspaces for new cultural and artistic enterprises. It is estimated that the whole project (including site purchase) will cost £20.9m. As with many new art projects, the Rich Mix Centre has drawn its support and funding from a range of arts, regeneration, and social interests, including the Mayor of London, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Millennium Commission.
Much of the publicity for the Lottery has focussed on major projects. Less has been written about smaller scale work where the main focus has been. A great deal has been achieved but grant recipients still remain the lucky few. To put it in context, the Winchester Theatre Royal is just one of 1,482 theatres currently operating in this country. The Theatres Trust estimates that 50% of these need to be refurbished or improved. The Rich Mix Centre is one of the very first set of projects to be supported by funding specifically allocated for Ethnic Minority Arts groups. Only a few such groups were ready to apply for capital grants when this money was made available.
Without a regular and continuing flow of this scale of capital funding, existing arts organisations will be unable to make proper plans for their future and new initiatives will struggle even harder to get off the ground. Theatre trusts such as Winchester may find that the job of continuous ?make do and mend? becomes just too much for them. Without some contribution, the money needed to develop facilities for neglected sections of the community will be directed to areas other than the arts.
Judith Strong is a consultant specialising in support services for organisations embarking on capital projects. t. 020 8891 5508 e: judith@a-ap.fsnet.co.uk;
w: http://www.a-apconsulting.com