27 October 2010
Arts organisations that receive regular funding from the Arts Council are to have their budgets cut by 6.9% next year.
The council set out yesterday how it plans to implement its 29.6% budget cut over the four-year Comprehensive Spending Review period. Funded arts organisations have not been hit as much had been expected – many had been braced for reductions of up to 10% next year.
The council said 2011/12 would be a ‘transitional year’, with the smaller-than-expected cuts giving arts organisations ‘a degree of stability’. This is partly to offset likely reductions in local government arts funding. The difference would be funded through larger percentage cuts to ‘regular clients whose primary purpose is not arts creation or performance’. For example, budgets for programmes working with children and business will be halved.
For the remaining years of the CSR period, all organisations will have to reapply for funding and ‘some will not receive funding in future, some will receive more, and some less’, the council added.
Liz Forgan, chair of Arts Council England, said: ‘For several months we have been in conversation with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, our funding partners, arts organisations and artists about how we can best support the arts in dealing with significant cuts. We have had to prioritise, to achieve a 6.9% cut to our portfolio within a 14% cash cut to our overall 2011/12 budget.
‘These measures are designed to ensure a strong and resilient future. The country needs its artists at a time like this and we are about building, as well as sustaining, our unparalleled arts and cultural sector.’
The Arts Council also plans to implement a 50% real-terms cut in operating costs, down from £22m to £12m by 2015.
