Closed doors

This year Art Asia celebrates its thirtieth anniversary, a milestone that we had expected to celebrate with a permanent home in the Southampton New Arts Complex (SNAC). This month, Southampton City Council published its most recent plans, but sadly, after over ten years of involvement, Art Asia has been progressively excluded from discussions and decisions. We do not understand how or why this has happened.

Art Asia’s mission is to communicate the rich and exciting experience of South Asian arts to the widest possible audience. In the Past ten years we’ve held 105 events attracting an audience of 21,000 people; 28,500 young people have actively experienced South Asian arts; and in the nine years of the Southampton Mela Festival, 124,000 people have joined us. We have a diverse and committed audience who return again and again to our performances and events.

In 2001, the role played by Art Asia in the community was acknowledged by the award of £0.75m Lottery funding, allocated to provide a permanent home for “a culturally diverse arts organisation”. We were persuaded that SNAC would provide that home and were enthusiastic about being part of a multi-disciplinary arts complex along with other key city partners. On the understanding that we would be anchor tenants with an office, workshop and studio space, we agreed that the grant be diverted to SNAC. We believed our status as anchor tenant reflected our established role in the city and, in the subsequent years of SNAC planning, we have felt and been treated as equal and full arts partners. In 2009, that changed and we still do not know why. It is clear that the local, national and global financial situation has changed radically in the past few years, and we understand the pressures on funding. However, the £0.75m allocated to Art Asia remains available and allocated to the larger fund for SNAC. But Art Asia is no longer involved and has been given no indication of the benefits of putting our funds into SNAC.

It is therefore both difficult and disappointing to admit that we have been excluded from SNAC. But if SNAC will not offer us the space that we desperately need to ensure our survival, then we have an obligation to ensure that the money is used as it was intended. We also have a responsibility to our audience to work as hard as we can to ensure we can continue to bring South Asian arts to the city. We therefore have no other option but to request the repayment of our £0.75m and to put it to its intended use, independent of the SNAC. This is not a request that we make lightly. We have spent much time and effort in correspondence with both the City Council and Arts Council England, but are frustrated at the lack of information and clarity. As an organisation, we feel this is the only route now available to us to follow.