ACE shares the pain

2011/12 will be a transitional year for organisations funded by Arts Council England (ACE), following decisions taken in the light of the Spending Review. Most regularly funded organisations (RFOs) face real-terms cuts of around 9% (6.9% in cash terms) next year, and cuts totalling 14.9% by 2014/15. Next year £7.1m will be shaved off the five biggest grant recipients: the Royal Shakespeare Company, English National Opera, Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre and the National Theatre.
 

ACE has kept the overall percentage cut “as low as possible” to allow organisations “a degree of stability in a very challenging economic environment, particularly in the context of the large cuts to local authority budgets implied in the Spending Review”. All organisations which are currently funded by ACE will have to reapply for funding: “Some organisations will not receive funding in future, some may receive more, and some less. There will also be the opportunity for new organisations to apply.” Full details of the process – which looks likely to resemble that used to implement a new investment strategy in Wales (AP221) – will be announced on 4 November, to coincide with the publication of ACE’s new 10-year strategic framework, ‘Achieving Great Art for Everyone’. Individual funding decisions for 2012–2015 will be announced by the end of March 2011.

Arts & Business (A&B) is to lose all of its funding from ACE by 2012/13, and will suffer a 50% cut in 2011/12. However, it will be given a transitional budget to enable it to plan its future operating structure. Its work will be taken on by ACE, which will develop “a challenge fund to incentivise donors”. Responding to the news, Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of A&B, said: “This is an extraordinary and potentially damaging decision… our private sector partners believe that ACE has dismantled our public realm work – to little purpose and with even less of a plan.”

Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) is also to have its funding halved, from £38.1m to £19.1m in 2011/12. ACE states that “children and young people remain an absolute priority”, but Paul Collard, Chief Executive of CCE, said: “the significant reduction in funding… will leave many young people in some of the most disadvantaged communities without access to the arts. Once these are gone there is no turning back the clock.” Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of ACE, defended its decisions, saying: “these measures are designed to ensure a strong and resilient future”. ACE also said that funding cuts will seriously affect its total budget, but not the shape of its ambition.

Significantly, ACE’s budget for strategic opportunities, which supports work such as touring, the Cultural Leadership Programme and the Cultural Olympiad, will be reduced by £21m (64%) next year and further details are expected by the end of the year. In the future, ACE “will be asking its funded organisations to take on more responsibility for furthering its strategic goals, particularly in the areas of touring and audience development”.