ACE Funding Turmoil - the Aftermath
So now we know.
The highest profile cuts (the Bush, the Orange Tree, Bristol Old Vic, the National Student Drama Festival and Exeter Northcott) have been reversed. One wonders how much the very public support of major theatrical figures like Nick Hytner had to do with that. Perhaps rather more surprising - but most welcome for all that - Eastern Angles have also had their funding reinstated, as have Jacksons Lane, Harrogate Theatre and the Birmingham Opera Company.
But 165 organisations have still been dropped by Arts Council and a further 27 have had their funding cut. This is core funding and it is what keeps the companies alive: without it, the majority will either have to cut their activities to the bone or close. Indeed the Drill Hall has already closed and we can expect to hear of more closures over the coming weeks.
No one has a right to Arts Council funding but ACE must assume some responsibility for the companies it chooses to stop funding. It must give them a reasonable space in which to prepare a case for appeal, enough time to the actual cessation of funding to find alternatives, and be absolutely clear and accurate in presenting its reasons for its decision. It cannot be said that any of this has been the case this time so a bad taste has been left in everybody’s mouth and trust in the organisation has been severely damaged.
That is probably the worst legacy of the whole sorry business. How can the arts world trust ACE after this debacle? Already one influential figure - Nicholas de Jongh of the Evening Standard - has called for the Council to be scrapped, but if that happened and funding decisions were left to the DCMS, then that would be an even bigger disaster. The arms-length principle must be maintained.
What is needed is a root and branch look at all of ACE’s funding procedures - a major reconstruction job, in fact. Incoming chief executive Alan Davey has the Herculean task of re-establishing the arts world’s trust in the organisation and if he doesn’t realise that, he shouldn’t be in the job. Now that the funding brouhaha is finished (barring any legal challenges), his first job must be to make the Council more arts-led, more transparent and more hands-on.
If, as many of the affected companies have complained, the officer responsible for “looking after” them never leaves the office to see what they are doing, that must change now. It should be part of their job description that they see the work of the companies for which they have responsibility a minimum number of times a year.
ACE claims that it is putting into action Brian McMaster’s recommendations about excellence. Excellent! Now let’s see them institute another of his recommendations - peer review. Let the professionals assess the work that is being funded, not the desk-bound bean-counters, some of whom wouldn’t recognise excellence in an art form if it hit them in the face with a wet fish.
Since those letters were sent out in December the arts world has been in turmoil and the reputation of Arts Council England has sunk to an all-time low. If changes are not made - and are seen to be made - then more and more people will start to wonder why we have an arts council at all, and that will take us into very dangerous territory indeed.