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Theatres fight for public funds to weather crisis

UK

Source : Culture Europe International (http://www.culture-europe-international.org)
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Rubrique : Revue de presse

du 03/04/2010 00:00 au 03/09/2010 00:00
Paris France



Texte : By Peter ASPDEN
The Financial Times
UK
April 3rd, 2010
(extracts)

The West End stage may be booming, with theatrelovers spending more than £500m - a record - on tickets to see London's big-name shows last year.

But away from the glitz of the big houses, British theatre is bracing itself for hard times. Almost 50 theatres have applied for emergency grants from Arts Council England (ACE) in recent months to help weather the effects of the recession.

Most have been awarded the grants under the council's "Sustain" programme, with the Young Vic in London and the Leicester Theatre Trust receiving the highest sums, at £1.2m and £1m respectively.

But with local authorities threatening to cut spending on arts and leisure activities, many of the country's theatres, which are already seeing drops in private sponsorship, are fearing the worst.(...)

Local authorities were putting a low priority on culture spending as they contemplated where to axe funding, said Richard Russell, director of strategic partnerships at ACE, citing research for the BBC. "Arts and leisure activities are a soft target, because they are not a statutory service for councils, which makes them vulnerable," he said.

But Alan Davey, chief executive of ACE, stressed that the body would not be able to replace lost local authority funding.

"Public funding is absolutely vital to the future of the arts, it is seen as a 'kitemark' of confidence in an organisation," he told a conference this week.

"Private money likes to follow success: it doesn't like to prop up something that looks vulnerable. If we cut funding to the arts the spiral of decline will be swift." (...)

At a launch last month of a cultural manifesto urging all the parties to maintain arts funding after the election, Sir Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, said "public investment means you can take risks".

Mr Russell said public subsidies provided the "bedrock" for the creation of work that could be commercially successful, adding value to the creative economy. "What we are trying to do is emphasise the added benefits they bring, such as education and making people feel better about where they live," he added.

Full version

Date de publication : 03/04/2010


Période traitée : 2010-04-03
Mots-clés : West End, London theatre, British theatre, Arts Council England, public arts spending, Young Vic, Leicester Theatre Trust,
Inséré le : 03/04/2010 21:37