http://www.thecumbrianetwork.co.uk/arts-council-fu…
There’s an interesting debate going on in the comments here about the effect of funding cuts, from a practitioner perspective (seeming largely unaffected) and from the independent organisation perspective.
It’s been pointed out several times that regional areas may be the hardest hit as they are unlikely to draw philanthropic support like high profile London venues. Christian Barnes had this to say about local autority funds:
“Public sector and especially local authority support for the arts is so important because it sits so close (in principle if not in recent practice) to democratic accountability and in this respect it has been the Arts Council’s disastrous mistake to approach this period by ‘dis-investing’ the local authorities. This sent a signal to the local authorities that it was OK to dis-invest in a non-statutory service – after all if the Arts Council doesn’t want to support local authority provision why should a local authority? Many authorities here in Cumbria are now feeling that it’s OK to follow suit. At the time of dis-investment local authorities accounted for a high proportion of revenue to the arts so this was always a questionable and risky position, one whose rationale has never been adequately explained to the sector. The Arts Council chose instead to partner with the Regional Development Agencies”
