Select Committee Criticises ACE, Cuts on 30 Mar

Members of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee have used a report on funding for the arts to criticise Arts Council England (ACE) just days before the axe falls for 850 Regularly Funded Organisations on 30 March 2011.

The select committee said ACE spent “far too much on itself” and went on to say it had the “potential to offer more strategic and finessed funding arrangements with arts bodies.”

Having required all arts organisations to re-apply for their funding with the hope of becoming part of the new National Portfolio of funded companies the Select Committee said it was “concerned at how great an administrative task it is to assess all the applications for the National Portfolio, and to draw up funding agreements in the two months that the Arts Council has set itself. Given that so many arts organisations will not make it into the National Portfolio, the short time frame will inevitably leave the Arts Council open to criticisms that its selection process lacked rigour.”

The Arts Council has also been told to sell works from its art collection, which currently stands at over 7,500 works, which was founded to be lent to galleries and museums. Suggesting that the collection should be combined with the Government or British Council collections, the Select Committee suggested that “strategic de-accessioning” or selling off of some works could help “at a time when the Arts Council is under serious financial pressures”. There was also criticism for ACE’s support of orchestras, which it feels may be subsidy duplicated by the BBC.

The Select Committee were also damning of the ACE’s involvement in the funding of The Public gallery in West Bromwich. ACE’s chief executive Alan Davey was not in post at the time of what the Select Committee called a “gross waste of public money” however they see they noted that Davey’s lack of ability to demonstrate what had been learnt from the failure of the project did “not inspire confidence in the Arts Council or its leadership.”

ACE were praised by the committee for undergoing “considerable change in recent years and has already cut its administration budget by over 50%.” However it did call into question their ability to further reduce its administrative budget by a further 50% in response to cuts in its grant from the Department of Culture Media and Sport.

Crucially the committee called applying for grants a “necessary evil for the arts sector” but said they were concerned “the Arts Council may not be supporting arts organisations in this process as well as it should, and it must be a priority to do so.”

The committee went on to criticise the Government’s “poor handling” of the abolition of the UK Film Council as well as removing funding from Arts and Business saying they were “concerned that the Arts Council lacks the experience and enthusiasm successfully to take on this role”. It said that the move to abolish the UK Film Council followed the same “disturbing modus operandi”, with failures to discuss the future of organisations before their abolition. With regards to the abolition of the UK Film Council the committee said they “have not found anyone who supports this decision.”

In response to the report an ACE spokesperson said: “We are pleased to see the Select Committee acknowledge the vital role the Arts Council plays and the energetic programme of artistic renewal and radical administrative reform we have undergone in recent years. We also appreciate their backing for the new National portfolio.

“The report is, however, out of date in places and could have benefited from a wider range of viewpoints from the oral witnesses. The Public is old news, and is not representative of the Arts Council’s investments in capital projects. Selling off works of art from the Arts Council Collection is also not a sensible solution to the current budget cuts.”

Arts organisations across the country will be notified on Wednesday morning (30 March) whether their application for National Portfolio funding has been successful. Over 1,300 applications have been made for funding, however yesterday’s Sunday Times suggested that of the 850 organisations currently receiving regular funding 200 may loose out completely with about 100 companies receiving some level of regular funding for the first time. Companies that lose their funding won’t do so until April 2012.

Whatsonstage.com will be reporting and tweeting live from the ACE press conference at 10am on Wednesday.