Equity leads theatre protest at ACE funding cuts.
Equity has called for a halt to Arts Council England’s (ACE) funding round for 2008/09 to allow decision processes to be reviewed. A packed and at times heated meeting at the Young Vic last Wednesday, attended by over 500 theatre managers, producers and actors, questioned ACE’s Chief Executive Peter Hewitt on the cuts to theatre companies, announced on 12 December (see AP 160).
Many companies under threat are complaining bitterly of a lack of consultation, saying that the cuts have come as a complete shock. Equity General Secretary, Christine Payne, said, “There appears to be a distinct, and perhaps deliberate, lack of involvement from professional theatre practitioners in the decision process currently being used by Arts Council England”. She called for “a thorough review of the process and procedures used by ACE in reaching its funding decisions”, and for the status quo to remain in the meantime. Speaking to ArtsProfessional, Peter Hewitt commented that while a delay in implementing the funding round might be welcomed by a minority, ACE has a responsibility to deliver funding over the next three years to nearly 1,000 companies who would wish to “get on with it”.
Josie Rourke, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, said that she had applied under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) for documents relevant to the decision to cut the theatre’s funding, and claimed that these show “serious factual errors contained in the data” used in making that decision, and “an under-recording of [our] audience numbers by two-thirds”. Hewitt defended the decision-making process, saying that overall, theatre across England has received a 7% increase in funding, though the number of theatres receiving regular funding has decreased from 233 to 218. He made a commitment to supplying other organisations with documents under FoI as quickly as possible.
The short notice of the decisions and requirement for companies to respond during the Christmas period has caused considerable anger. The way in which the information has been made known was also heavily criticised. Hewitt defended the “confidentiality” of the process, pointing out that many companies had chosen not to reveal their settlements. The meeting ended with a motion of “absolutely no confidence in the Arts Council”, proposed by veteran Equity activist Miriam Karlin, which was carried unanimously.
The music world is also absorbing the news that the London Mozart Players and the Orchestra of the Swan may have to cancel rural concert and outreach programmes as a result of the cuts. Mark Pemberton, Director of the ABO, has called the proposal to withdraw funding from three chamber orchestras “a body blow to the sector”. Dedalus Publishing, which is set to lose a £25,000 grant, is preparing to mount a legal challenge to ACE’s decision, saying that ACE has not followed its own disinvestment guidelines, which outline a seven-stage procedure usually lasting 6-18 months. Freelance theatre director Peter Beck has organised a protest march through Norwich city centre for 19 January. Nicky Stainton, Director of Creative Arts East, said that the cuts “will help turn Norfolk into an arts black hole where nothing will happen because the grassroots is not supported.”