Arts Group

Though there have been no major cuts to Arts Council funding just yet, the looming elections are likely to set a new tone.  Much has happened over the past two years to dramatically alter its budget.  In 2007, the Arts Council placed a large chunk of its funding towards the 2012 Olympics. Last year’s recession meant that public sectors faced major setbacks, and the profits made in the arts were significantly reduced.

This all sounds very gloomy, but is it really? The 2009 budget report in April announced it would cut £4 million out of the previous £467 million, decreasing the budget by less than 1%. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which, along with the Arts Lottery, funds the Arts Council has had its own cuts in 2010 of £20million. The Arts Council, therefore will only be bearing a fifth of DCMS’ losses.

Although these cuts are minimal, they do come as a great disappointment. Since 2002, the Arts Council has had yearly increase in funding. That year, a new spending plan was announced that would make the DCMS budget £257 million higher in 2005-06 than in 2002-03. Furthermore in 2007, the Arts Council was promised £20 million over the following three years.

As for prospective cuts, the Arts Council continues to point out that the revenue from the Arts sector is much higher than its spending. In July last year, MP Andy Burnham told the Stage: “the small – relatively small – amount of funding here, produces a huge benefit not [just] socially, educationally, culturally, but also economically.” Indeed, when Liverpool became Europe’s Capital of Culture in 2008, it generated £176 million from tourism alone and an £800 million boost to regional economy.

No doubt 2010 will see a decrease in Arts Council money. Can a new government change this? Or is it dictated by the recession? Predicting the former, Chief of the Arts Council Alan Davey met with the Conservative Party last October to discuss the importance of funding. Like Burnham, he argued that arts revenue was beneficial to the economy. On the opposite side of the spectrum were the conclusions reached at the Funding Transition conference hosted by arts think tank Missions Models Money in December.  Chair of the meeting Clara Miller, CEO of Non-profits Finance Fund, argued that it is the way arts businesses are run that needs to change, rather than government revenue. Can art businesses, as Clara Miller suggests, overcome financial struggle by remodelling?  These are questions organisations, as well as art students and artists, will have to face as we draw closer to a new government and a revision of this year’s budgets.

Words by Lemma Shehadi