In Thursday’s (10/21) Guardian (London), Charlotte Higgins reports, “England’s arts budget will take a 30% cut as a result of today’s comprehensive spending review—a slashing that will be seen as deeply damaging to the cultural landscape, including theatres, festivals, the performing arts, venues, orchestras, and regional and local galleries. Arts Council England (ACE) will face an overall cut of 30%, and the government is asking it to pass on cuts of only 15% to ‘front line’ arts organisations. Aside from cutting its own overheads, that will mean stopping funding to a number of arts advocacy and development programmes such as the educational programme Creative Partnerships. It will also hit work including Cultural Olympiad projects. The 15% cut to the arts ‘front line’—broadly defined as its portfolio of regularly funded organisations—means that, according to the chief executive of ACE, Alan Davey, at least 100 arts organisations will lose their funding. … The total budget for the Department of Media, Culture and Sport is to be reduced by 24% from £1.4bn to £1.1bn by 2014/2015.” These cuts will require the BBC to save 16% over the period, which could impact its budget for the Proms, where many American orchestras have been featured over the years.
Posted October 21, 2010
