Managers at the Sage in Gateshead have agreed a pay freeze on staff this year in the light of the economic recession.
But the move, which was outlined in a letter to the venue’s 335 staff, comes after a successful close to 2008 at the box office. Takings were up on the same period in 2007, said Sage executive director Anthony Sargent.
But he added that, although box office had been good in 2008, takings were beginning to level off. In a normal recessionary cycle, discretionary spending on the arts tends to lag behind.
“We have to be prudent. This has only happened after a long consultation process with the staff and we have not ruled out reinstating it later in the year depending on actual recessionary impact, and staff know that.”
He added that a number of other arts organisations nationally and regionally were considering similar moves and others were even contemplating laying people off.
• The future of Newcastle’s historic Journal Tyne Theatre has been assured with a £100,000 grant from English Heritage to carry out urgent repairs to the roof. The theatre, a Grade I-listed building which is on English Heritage’s At Risk register, has also been handed over to a new trust, the Tyne Theatre and Opera House Preservation Trust. The trust will oversee a fundraising campaign to raise £7m by 2015 to fully restore and revamp the theatre which first opened in 1867.