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A planning application has been submitted for Doncaster’s new £22m performance arts space, which has yet to be named. Construction of the venue, which will contain a 600-seat auditorium, a second space for up to 200 people seated or 400 standing, and dance and drama studios, is scheduled to begin in 2011 with the venue due to open in spring 2013. Earlier this year, regional development agency Yorkshire Forward pledged £9m of funding for the venue, which is now contingent on the results of the Spending Review. Arts Council England has contributed £2m from the National Lottery and will also be providing £100,000 of revenue funding per year.
Employment opportunities available to professional artists have reportedly fallen by 27% in the past year and could drop by a further 23%, according to an arts umbrella group urgently lobbying government to reconsider the scale and timing of budget cuts to the arts. Twelve arts bodies and organisations, including ArtQuest, the Crafts Council, the Visual Arts and Galleries Association and the Contemporary Art Society, have written to Jeremy Hunt on behalf of more than 60,000 visual artists, galleries, public collections, studio groups and producing agencies.
Competition to become the next artist to secure the Fourth Plinth commission is too close to call, according to Paddy Power. The bookmakers have declined to name a favourite from the six shortlisted proposals, with interest being relatively evenly split between the candidates. Elmgreen & Dragset’s ‘Powerless Structures, Fig.101,’ a brass sculpture of a boy on his rocking horse, and Hew Locke’s ‘Sikandar’, a replica of the statue of Field Marshal Sir George White, are currently joint favourites, both with 2/1 odds of winning. Mariele Neudecker’s ‘It’s Never Too Late And You Can’t Go Back’ is seen as the outsider, with odds of 6/1.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is inviting arts professionals to submit evidence and views on key questions affecting the sector to its inquiry into the funding of arts and heritage. Interested parties are asked their opinions on various topics, including the impact of spending cuts, how arts organisations can work together and what level of public subsidy is necessary and sustainable. Respondents should email
[email protected] by 2 September. Submission guidelines can be found at
Following the announcements that the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), and the UK Film Council (UKFC), are to be scrapped, and the Theatres Trust is to be decommissioned, organisations have been speaking out. The Museums Association has vowed “to fight harder and louder for museums and the programmes MLA has been running”. Mark Taylor, Director of the Museums Association, said that museums would be “disillusioned and angry” if strategies are not put in place to mitigate the loss of the MLA. Tim Bevan CBE, Chairman of the UKFC, called the move to abolish his organisation “a bad decision”, and criticised the lack of consultation and evaluation.
Arts Quarter (AQ) is looking to update its research into the impacts of the recession on the cultural and not-for-profit communities in the UK. More than 500 organisations took part in the last two surveys, the findings for which were published in March and November 2009. AQ believes that the spending review could have a profound impact on how arts and charitable communities operate in the coming years and is asking respondents to take part in its latest survey mapping trends. The survey is open now, and the results will be shared, free of charge, in October.
How much should artists charge for their work? For those unsure about how to value their practice, a-n: The Artists Information Company has launched a new tool to help the industry establish fairer rates of pay. The online tool offers a step-by-step process to calculate an individual daily rate and prepare quotes for freelance work. It concentrates on services rather than products, and calculates the level of remuneration for comparative professions; the costs specific to freelance working; the artist’s circumstances and location; and how an artist’s knowledge and experience level should change the fees they charge.
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