In what's billed as the "Biggest change to arts funding in a generation", the Arts Council England (ACE) have replaced the old regularly funded system with the new National portfolio funding programme as of April 2012. Announced alongside the new "Great art for everyone" strategic framework for the arts, the new programme is also a response to a massive cut of just under 30% in government funding over the next four years.
In the short term, organisations who already receive funding will see it cut by up to 6.9% for the year 2011/2012, and will need to reapply for funding under the new scheme by January 2011. Since there is now a smaller pot of cash, over 100 funded organisations will be dropped from the funding portfolio by 2015.
Funding awards will be based on the new "Achieving great art for everyone" strategy, which focuses on five main goals:
• Talent and artistic excellence are thriving and celebrated
• More people experience and are inspired by the arts
• The arts are sustainable, resilient and innovative
• The arts leadership and workforce are diverse and highly skilled
• Every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts
For once, the artist is at the top of the list, the first goal focusing on the "development of artistic talent, particularly for emerging and mid-career artists”. Mid-career artists note: finally, recognition that talent doesn't rest entirely on young, inexperienced shoulders and you're not past it when you're 26…
Overall, there is more emphasis on good business practice and less stress on ticking diversity or social inclusion boxes. This is a blueprint for the arts as business (which is why it is so ironic that one major casualty in the arts cuts has been Arts & Business, an organisation designed to deliver business training for arts professionals, but that's another story.)
In a nutshell, there will be less ACE cash for less companies, and a requirement that in future, funded organisations must "Have an outstanding track record of achievement or outstanding potential." Combine this cut in direct arts funding with the cuts local councils and local authorities are bound to make in arts provisions (Somerset County Council have already cut direct grants to arts organisations completely), and the funding landscape looks rather Spartan.
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However, let's be clear here - this is not anybody's fault. It is the way it is, because the whole country is in an economic mess. Yes, we are all in this together, it's not fun, but there is it. As the saying goes, get over it, because this situation is also nothing new.
I've run an opera company for almost 20 years now, and this is my third recession (lucky me!). I started when there was no cash for anyone doing opera that wasn't newly composed, carried on when corporate bookings fell off a cliff after the Millennium, and we're still in business. In all that time, we never received a single penny in direct funding from ACE or anyone else, apart from continuing sponsorship of our digital piano by online musical instrument store Starland. (Thanks, chaps).
I'm not going to pretend that a 30% cuts in ACE funding isn't going to change the opera landscape; combined with the local authority cutbacks,, it's going to rock it badly. Companies will fail and venues go dark, festivals will fold, but it's economics, not funding that's at the root of the problem.
So, the arts are going to do what they've always done when a source of money runs out - carry on. It's hard work, it's risky insomuch as nobody knows what will work out or not, but so long as there is an audience, there will be talented artists to delight, challenge and entertain them.
When it comes to optimism in the arts, I'm with comedienne Sarah Millican: "Don't look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Stomp up there and switch the sod***g thing on yourself."
Kirsty Young
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