What do you think about the Arts Council cuts? Whether you're a theatre organiser or theatre goer, have your say at the foot of this article

On December 12 the Northcott Theatre in Exeter reopened its doors after a £2.1 million refurbishment. The work was funded, in part, by the Arts Council. So you would imagine that Clarie Middleton, the theatre’s acting chief executive, was filled with nothing but seasonal goodwill towards her kindly benefactors. In fact, her thoughts were far from strewn with tinsel. Because, the day before, Middleton had received news that the Arts Council was proposing to withdraw its £547,000 annual grant.

“Why invest in a theatre you had no confidence in?” asks Middleton. “They think we won’t go under without subsidy? Watch us.”

Different theatre companies are singing a similar song across the country. At the moment, all changes in funding are provisional – the Arts Council has recommended that 194 arts organisations out of its portfolio of 990 receive cuts in funding. And until it’s all made official at the end of this month, it can’t comment on which those organisations will be. If you’ve heard about theatres facing the axe, it’s because the theatres have gone public about it, not the Arts Council. Meanwhile those theatres and theatre companies have until January 15 to plead their case.

“They’ve said we can respond to their recommendation, and we intend to,” Middleton says. “But in reality they can’t back down in any real way without losing all credibility. Perhaps two of those 194 decisions will be overturned, no more. It’s an absolutely ludicrous position we’re in.”

Despite fears that the 2012 Olympics would neuter arts funding, many companies breathed a sigh of relief when, in October, the Government awarded the Arts Council a £1 billion settlement. What has ensued, though, is the biggest shake-up of its client lists in the Arts Council’s 60-year history. So what will it mean for theatre? And will the outcome really be just, after the council’s regional divisions make their final decisions between January 15 and the end of the month?

Peter Hewitt, the outgoing Arts Council chief executive, points out that 746 organisations have had “good” or “very good” news. So are those who have lost out just the victims of a long overdue, prudent prune? Or is it, as theEvening Standard put it, a “bloody cull”?

The former, says Sarah Holmes, the chief executive of the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich – described by the Arts Council as one of its key regional theatres. “I’m impressed with their bravery,” she says. “Everyone’s been saying it needed a big shake-up, although it is devastating for companies losing their grants.”

Even those organisations that have been hit agree that cuts were needed. Ivan Cutting, the artistic director of Eastern Angles, which tours theatre to East Anglia’s rural communities, says: “There has to be change, nobody would dispute that. Otherwise, how could new companies come through?”

But the Arts Council’s proposal to reduce Eastern Angles’ annual funding from £218,000 to £115,000 is based, according to Cutting, on “a very strange rationale. They aren’t disputing the quality of our work. They’re saying we don’t tour widely enough. We tour to four counties. They’re rushing decisions through because the settlement came so late from Government. As a result, terrible mistakes are being made.”

A similar picture emerges from Queer Up North, the Manchester-based gay and lesbian festival, which faces a withdrawal of its £98,000 grant. Jonathan Best, the artistic director, agrees that “there has to be refreshing of the lists. But they have to be based on a coherent, transparent policy, and from where we sit, they just aren’t.

“We’ve been told our audiences are too small, and yet we sold 70 per cent of available tickets in the 2007 festival, the first under new management. If they want to make a case against us, make an honest one. And giving everybody 18 working days over Christmas in which to cobble together a response is madness.”

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