Councils must recognise value of cultural investment

Any shortfall in local authority arts funding will not be made up by Arts Council England, its chief executive Alan Davey has warned, and he urged councils to recognise the social and economic value of their cultural investment.

Speaking at the Local Government Association’s annual culture, sport and tourism conference, he said the arts were poised to play an even bigger role.

“There are numerous examples of arts organisations generating huge amounts for their local economies” he said. “Recent economic impact studies have shown that in its first year of operation the Sage in Gateshead contributed £43 million to the North East economy; in the South East the De La Warr Pavilion contributed £16 million; Pallant House Gallery in Chichester £2.7 million.

“The arts also attract tourism and business, creating the kinds of communities that people want to live in.”

The speech came as anxiety mounted for local authority commitment to the arts in the coming two years of tighter budgets. Until recent years, local authority funding of the arts had always kept pace with the Arts Council’s and was usually slightly ahead, but it has fallen dramatically. Although it is difficult to measure because arts funding is often buried in leisure and tourism budgets, some estimates put the figure at around £220m a year in England, less than half ACE’s current annual commitment.

“We’ve got to have grown up conversations about our shared ambitions for the arts, and how they contribute to what people really want in their communities” Davey said. “We need to make sure that in ten years we still have an infrastructure that works.”

‘Candour and challenge’ in new system

Arts Council England is launching a new framework for funding regularly funded organisations, including an online self-evaluation process.

The new structure is to be set in place in May to “provide greater clarity and reinforce the importance of artistic excellence at the heart of the funding relationship”, and is the result of last year’s extensive consultation. The framework will come into full effect in 2011-12

It follows the launch of the peer appraisals for clients receiving more than £5m a year in subsidy already under way, alongside which the new framework will run and is part of the new thinking in Arts Council funding which after the “reinvestment” cuts of 2007-08, a PR disaster for ACE which was partly blamed on the remoteness of the council’s national office from its clients.

“Regularly funded organisations are vital partners for the Arts Council” said Althea Efunshile, ACE’s chief operating officer. “This document sets out a renewed basis for our relationship with them and describes new ways in which we will manage those relationships in the future, relationships which are based on partnership, openness and mutual respect.”

The National Theatre had been one of ACE’s strongest critics two years ago, but its executive director, Nick Starr, said this week: “The new framework is a positive step forward. It reinforces the straightforwardness of the Arts Council’s approach to the organisations it funds. Peer appraisals will make a valuable contribution to this and are being developed in the spirit of candour and challenge that characterises the Arts Council at its best.”

More than 25% of arts organisations eligible are failing to claim Gift Aid, according to Arts & Business analysis.

Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of Arts & Business said: “In a climate of recession where the arts sector is increasingly asking the government to consider further tax incentive schemes, it is vital that Gift Aid is seen to be successful or further schemes will not be considered” said Colin Tweedy, chief executive of A&B. “Clarity around tax benefits is essential for philanthropic giving to grow in future years.”

A&B’s 2008/2009 Private Investment in Culture survey suggests that whilst large and medium organisation are claiming Gift Aid (87%), only a small proportion of small organisations (12%) are.

The Arts Council has announced the eighth and last round of Sustain awards. Almost £47m has been issued form lottery funds to help organisations hit by the recession since the fund was created last summer, since when 147 have received grants.

The last list is worth £5.9m and benefits:
• Young Vic Theatre Company, London – £1,210,000
• English National Ballet, London – £879,248
• Opera North Ltd, Leeds – £800,000
• Northern Ballet Theatre, Leeds – £735,000
• The Brewhouse Theatre & Arts Centre, Taunton – £487,500
• Serpentine Gallery, London – £472,000
• Arnolfini, Bristol – £367,500
• Theatre Royal Stratford East – £290,000
• Bedford Creative Arts – £175,000
• Theatre Royal, Wakefield – £158,000
• Plymouth Arts Centre – £140,000
• Picture This, Bristol – £100,000
• Spacex Ltd, Exeter – £75,000

“Now we must look ahead” said ACE chief executive Alan Davey. “Our experience with the Sustain programme has identified a need for the kind of support that builds resilience in the long term. We are looking in particular at addressing the needs of smaller organisations and will be announcing a specific scheme shortly.”

NSA will make UK global leader, says PM

The £13m National Skills Academy for cultural and creative skills which will give industry-led training for the creative sector in the Royal Opera House production park in Thurrock has been given the Prime Minister’s go-ahead. Work starts on the academy in November and it will open in 2012.

Its first focus will be the expected need for 30,000 skilled backstage and technical theatre staff by 2017.

“The National Skills Academy is in line with many of the government’s objectives on skills, training, apprenticeships and regeneration” Gordon Brown said. “It will help to support young people in the creative industries, and is of international importance for a live performance sector that generates over £6 billion per year for the UK economy.

“The National Skills Academy will position the UK as a global leader in cultural skills and training, plug the creative and cultural skills gap and deliver what employers and young people need to boast skills, access and jobs in the vital creative industries sector” he said.

The announcement confirms funding for the new building from the Homes and Communities Agency, and comes in the first year of the academy’s existence, said its managing director, Pauline Tambling. “Along with the support of our 20 founder colleges and industry members, this building has brought us even closer to realising our vision of an internationally acclaimed technical theatre and live music sector supporting the best stages in the world” she said.

Three month Festival 2012 announced

In her first pronouncement since becoming director of the Cultural Olympiad in January, Ruth Mackenzie has announced a three month-long festival covering the Olympiad summer in 2012.

Festival 2012, running from Midsummer’s Day in June to September, will be a “once-on-a-lifetime” street event that will be a showcase for British talent, she said.
Meanwhile she and her team of advisers will “shape and edit” events already planned in the run-up to the Olympic summer.

There is now a budget of over £75m, including £3m pledged last week by the British Council. Another new sponsor, adding to the commitment of BT and BP, is Panasonic who will support the Olympic film programme. Most of the money is coming from the Legacy Trust, the Olympic Lottery Distributor, the Arts Council and now the British Council.

Mackenzie also announced that some of the budget has already been committed to ten commissions, which she was announcing for the Unlimited programme of work by disabled artists, launched by Tony Hall last year.

The first commissions, worth £400,000, have been placed in the regions of the four UK arts councils to emphasise the national nature of the Cultural Olympiad, and include the Candoco Dance Company and Graeae Theatre in London; the visual artist Maurice Orr in Northern Ireland; Fittings Multimedia Arts in the north-west; Janice Parker’s piece for disabled dancers, and Ramnesh Meyyappan’s play Snails and Ketchup in Scotland; a storytelling project by Chris Tally Evans, and a collection of monologues for deaf and disabled performers by Kaite O’Reilly and the LLanarth Group in Wales; Jez Colbourne and Mind the Gap with a ‘siren symphony’ called Irresistible, and Bipolar Ringmaster’s Stumble danceCircus in Yorkshire.

The final four for the shortlist to be the UK’[s first City of Culture in 2013 have been chosen. They are Birmingham, Derry/Londonderry, Norwich and Sheffield.

They were chosen from a long list of 14 by a panel chaired by Phil Redmond, the television producer and creative director of Liverpool in its year as European Cultural Capital in 2008.

“The panel was influenced by the expected step change each city was asked to envisage, if they gained the title and subsequent media spotlight” he said.

“It was a hard choice but also heartening that all bidders had recognised the power of culture to bring people together; to work collectively within existing resources for a common goal and bring into being networks that may not have existed before.”

The four will now have to make final bids to be in by the end of May, and in the summer Redmond’s panel will see presentations from them before announcing the eventual winner.

Charities Commission block plan dispose of art to raise funds