The level of funding available for the arts has already been substantially affected by the 2012 Olympics, according to the 2007/08 annual review of Arts Council England (ACE), published this month. The 2007/08 Grants for the Arts programme made over 2,800 grants totalling nearly £57m, in contrast to the £83m invested during 2006/07. An ACE spokesperson told AP that “This reduction is partly as a result of the diversion of lottery funds to the 2012 Games (that will affect Arts Council budgets from April 2008) but also due to the general decline in Lottery income and to competition from Olympic Lottery games – scratch cards where all proceeds go direct to the Olympics, rather than into the general Lottery pot.” ACE has also confirmed that grant-in-aid contributions to the Grants for the Arts fund, which last year amounted to £890,000 and were worth £9.7m the year before, will cease from this year. Incomplete Lottery capital projects included The Public, the West Bromwich venue which is currently working under administration “to produce a viable operating plan for the business”, and the troubled Rich Mix Cultural Foundation in London, which is still seeking to “create a more suitable business model for a building of this size and capacity”. The Public has received 99.8% of its £29.9m capital grant, while Rich Mix has received 99.7% of its £7m grant.
