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In Funding Drama, Arts Council Backtracks

by Zoe Strimpel
Mon, 4 Feb 2008 at 7:36 PM

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The drama surrounding massive cuts in funding for arts groups in Britain continues apace. According to a friend who used to work for the Stage, a newspaper devoted to the theater industry in Britain, Arts Council funding announcements have always caused uproars, since there are always losers. "Every year it was the same," he recalled. "Theatrical ventures not considered inclusive or educational enough lost funding. We always hated this time of year for that reason."

Well, this year the row has been bigger than usual. The Arts Council announced before Christmas that it was cutting grants for more than 200 creative organizations. Such outrage ensued that the Arts Council has had to go back on itself. It said on Friday that it had changed its mind about "proposals" for 17 groups, including the Bush Theatre in west London (where Mark Ravenhill will partly stage his new play in April) and the Bristol Old Vic.

Yet this announcement sounded more beneficent than, perhaps, it is. Only nine groups will again receive full funding, and only two — the Arts Digest research group and Rideout, which uses the arts to help rehabilitate prisoners — will escape further self-justification. The rest of the casualties are numerous (though not necessarily gratuitously harsh). Of those that complained, 27 groups are still getting less money than before, and 185 will have their funds cut entirely. A total of 888 groups will have their grants bolstered. The Arts Council chairman, Sir Christopher Frayling, said at a press conference on Friday: "This is the most radical review in the 60-year history of the Arts Council. There is no room for new blood if we keep a fixed playing field."

Some think the Arts Council is perfectly within its rights to make these cuts, and that arts groups harbor ridiculous ideas of entitlement. Others are furious at the council's behavior, such as the Guardian's theater critic, Michael Billington. "The whole affair reeks of muddle and incompetence," he told his paper, "and is proof that the Arts Council, unless it faces a radical overhaul of its staff, is no longer fit for purpose." Nicholas Hytner, head of the National Theatre, is reportedly no longer on speaking terms with Sir Christopher after Mr. Hytner made a scathing verbal attack on him over the "redistribution" of funds. And in the past few weeks, celebrities including Dame Judi Dench and Kevin Spacey have clambered aboard the campaign to get the council to recant.

"It is not the decibel count which has influenced us, but reasoned argument," Sir Christopher told reporters earlier last week. Hmmm.

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