Thursday, April 19, 2007

 

Lottery Cut

It sounds like a number of artists will be for the high-jump. Principally as, with lottery funds being diverted to pay for the London Olympics, taking up the high-jump could be more lucrative than making art.

Artists whinging about money is unedifying and demeaning, but on this occasion it appears justified. In the midst of careful strategic planning, lobbying and development by the Arts Council the Department for Culture Media and Sport and let it be known (bad news is, if possible, never announced), the Grants4Arts fund, which delivers National Lottery cash to arts organisations, is to be cut by 35% next year.

This is the fund that helped underwrite Of All The People In All The World’s UK tour in 2005 and is contributing significantly to The Cleansing Of Constance Brown being made. As we receive some revenue funding from Arts Council England we try not to bid into Grants4Arts much, but when we do it is for projects we feel are highly significant for the companies development. A 35% cut spell bad news for us, but potential disaster for companies and individuals without revenue funds and without our momentum and reputation, at an earlier stage in development.

It would be galling enough if the money were a direct transfer from Artists to Athletes, but in truth the money will go to building contractors and security guards. The whole country is paying for urban regeneration in East London, a worthy cause indeed, but not something that should rob us all of cultural opportunities.

Chopping budgets around until they balance is a swift business for accountants, but developing a strong culture takes much time and continuity. This sporting spasm, for all its talk of sporting legacy, will leave an equivalent bleak artistic legacy. This is a shame both for those who value their art and those who value their sport, as what should be a great celebration is rapidly stirring up resentment and cynicism. For those of us who value both sport and art is a double disappointment.

Prepare to tighten your belts, we may need some lumber support.

James


Comments:
Without wanting to sound like a sour northern bastard....

They bent over backwards to point out that this was not so much the LONDON Olympics, but a BRITISH Olympics. Well of course they were right in one respect, as while the capital will reap the rewards, the rest of the country can enjoy coughing up for it.
 
Peter Hewitt also blames the funding cut on a drop in people buying lottery tickets. I don't often buy lottery tickets because I don't think I'll win. Still, I've been benefitting from others' wild optimism or delusion on this matter for a number of years now, and so part of me is sanguine (and weirdly relieved) about the fact that people have wised up to the bad odds. Taking people's taxes however ...
 
I don't see why people imagine that those of us who live in London will benefit from the tossing Olympics. More housing in the East end so more East Enders (ewwww), more people squeezing onto the tube, more children wasting their lives in Sports Centres, surrounded by aggression and the stench of rotting trainers, more blank-eyed tourists, doubly bovine from being sports fiends. I'd pay a thousand pounds to have this depressing waste of time visited upon some other city. Count your blessings Up North - it's going to be grim down here.
 
This has just come through to the Stan's e-mail box...

"With the massive reduction of funds from Grants for the Arts to the Olympics; artists, and thousands of them, are having to retrain as sportspeople to ensure balance is maintained in our society.

To assist with the retraining of thought and body that is essential in facilitating this shift, an artistic sports day is being organised for the 26th May, on Hackney Marshes in East London (large parts of which are being developed for the Olympic site).

We need competitors, equipment and ideas for sports such as dry-land synchronised swimming, the fifteen-legged race and tranny-boxing. We need bunting and stewards, poster-makers and banner painters, publicists, musicians and photographers.

Let us know how you can contribute, tell us you're coming, share your excitement at the forthcoming change in career, write to us please, at gruntsforthearts@googlemail.com. Let’s embrace this time together, enjoy the sunshine and let the non-artists amongst us know exactly what is happening."
 
Arts Council England's Chief Executive, Peter Hewitt, has responded robustly to the recent Olympic raid on lottery funds, I imagine Stan's Café readers will have strong views too - you can add them to our discussion. And while you are there, why not join the debate on what principles should guide public funding of the arts today ? The arts debate is Arts Council England's first ever public value enquiry and we've already had a lot of lively online contributions.

Luke Smith, Project Manager, The Arts Debate
 
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