Hannah Kozich on how a local council’s funding cut has hit a thriving arts centre in Cumbria

I reached for my calculator when I heard that Allerdale Borough Council intended, from April 1 this year, to end its grant to the Kirkgate Arts Centre in the Cumbrian market town of Cockermouth.

The council does not regularly fund the Kirkgate: every year we have to go cap in hand, never quite knowing whether the centre will have enough cash to continue the work that is valued so much in the community.

Now we know that for 2010-11 we will receive nothing. Last year Allerdale gave us £3,600, which works out at less than one penny per week per head of population in the town. We know that Allerdale, like many councils, faces major budget pressures. But in return for a tiny local authority investment, the Kirkgate has developed into an arts centre that estate agents boast about as they sell their houses to incomers; it is, say those agents, one of the things that makes Cockermouth “a great place to live, work or visit”, which just happens to be Allerdale Council’s motto.

Allerdale’s penny-pinching comes at a particularly cruel time for Cockermouth, which is still recovering from the appalling floods that swept through the town last November. The Kirkgate was not affected, although its neighbouring beck rose dangerously high.

We knew then that we had to help the people of the town. We offered space to groups whose regular meeting places had been flooded. We also soon realised that flood victims, scattered in emergency housing across the region, desperately wanted to stay in contact with the friends and neighbours from whom they had been separated.

So we launched a series of drop-in social nights at which people could meet. Nothing exotic; just food, drink, music and talk. But their value has been huge and people have pleaded with us to keep running them. We will if we can. But we are not sure we can find the time. If we were not so preoccupied with Allerdale’s cut to our funding, we might be better able to continue to support local people.

Those socials proved Kirkgate’s worth in the community. The centre was established 15 years ago in a sturdy former school by a team of enthusiasts and now welcomes more than 6,000 visitors a year whose ticket money and room rents help us survive. The centre has a minimal staff and a part-time development manager was appointed only three years ago. Without a team of 100 dedicated volunteers who run the box office, act as front of house staff and help with publicity and marketing, we could not function.

We run a regular programme of independent films, live music, contemporary dance, children’s theatre and professional touring theatre shows in our intimate auditorium. Amateur groups stage their shows here. We provide opportunities for our volunteers to train and develop their skills and we are now developing a programme of arts activities for young people, including weekly Krazy Arts workshops for those aged 11-16.

So why has Allerdale abolished our grant? How do we persuade other bodies to fund the Kirkgate when our own council won’t?

But the problem does not stop there. The Kirkgate also delivers Arts Out West, the rural touring programme that takes high-quality arts events into 25 village halls and community centres in West Cumbria, from Millom to the Solway. Till now, Allerdale has regularly funded AOW and last year gave a grant of £5,000. AOW also receives grants from Copeland borough council and Cumbria county council, and is regularly funded by Arts Council England.

We fear that Allerdale’s abandonment of its responsibilities to AOW will have an impact on those other funders. The end of the grant means not just a reduction of 40 per cent in the number of professional shows that can be offered to village halls in the borough but endangers the survival of the Rural Touring Scheme as a whole.

To remove funding at this time from both the Kirkgate and Arts Out West shows a real lack of understanding of the benefits of the arts, both to those who attend performances and to those who give up their time to arrange, promote and host them. If Allerdale’s councillors believe that bringing pleasure to thousands of people is not a good enough reason to fund the Kirkgate and Arts Out West, perhaps they should consider the economic impact of the two organisations and their role in the recovery of a town and region battered by a natural disaster.

Meanwhile we have a simple message for the council: Give us our penny back. Please.
Hannah Kozich chairs the boards of Kirkgate Arts, Kirkgate Centre and Arts Out West