6.9% cuts, 100% innovation

Around this time last week, I was working my way across the North West, meeting with a number of RFOs waiting for news from ACE on the level of cuts that would be levied for the 2011/12 financial year. By 3:00pm last Wednesday, I’d lost count of the number of texts I’d received starting with “phew”, as most seemed to see the prospect of a 6.9% reduction in subsidy as some thing of a relief. “What about your local authority funding and what about your ACE funding post 2012?”, became my stock response by late on Wednesday. The sting in the tail of these cuts will most surely lie in what now comes forward in these two key areas and on those we now have to wait and see what will happen. Maybe news will start to filter down from this Thursday’s ACE media briefing – let’s all just watch this space…

But not all has been doom and gloom in this last week, my extended visit to the North West last week and the number of calls I’ve received since has filled me with something of a positive outlook for the arts. At all my meetings last week and in phone conversations and meetings since, everyone seems to be focusing on rising to this challenge and doing what our sector does best – innovating. Some might see this innovation as being our survival instincts kicking in – I see it as more than that and so forgive me for being one of life’s optimists – we ARE looking forward and striving to embrace change as only we can as a sector. Many within the wider public sector, industry and the financial services are notorious for resisting change – when have we ever done so? We are intelligent, creative and resilient and have a capacity to channel our talents and experiences into re-shaping our business models in ways which may make other sectors envious. At the moment (and understandably), many are nervous but the levels of innovation shown by some at this time in terms of reducing costs, while developing plans to diversify fundraising and earned revenues will inevitably trickle across the sector in a very short time. In our research work and in more recent conversations with a wide range of organizations, I continue to see a great deal of considered creativity and thought by senior staff. Some will inevitably need help more than others and it is in this that the Arts Council and Coalition Government must recognize that they continue to have a responsibility.