Culture

A golden age for the arts? Dream on

March 30, 2011
An image from 'The Devil Has Quentin's Heart,' a new play being staged in April at the Exexter Northcott Theatre. Today the theatre has received a 100 per cent cut in its funding
An image from 'The Devil Has Quentin's Heart,' a new play being staged in April at the Exexter Northcott Theatre. Today the theatre has received a 100 per cent cut in its funding

Today's widelypublicised arts cuts have not produced a bloodbath. As ever there are winners and losers. But it is the smaller playhouses and arts venues, such as the Castlefield Gallery and the Derby Theatre, that will suffer above all. The government has pledged to fill the funding gap with an extra £80m in lottery money from 2013, but this is simply a smokescreen for today's cuts. With more people than ever buying lottery tickets, there is money to be spent, but unfortunately it will not be used for core arts funding.

Among the biggest victims of today's cuts are the Shared Experience theatre company (100 per cent cut), Riverside Studios (ditto) and London's ICA (42 per cent). The Guardian's Michael Billington has also voiced his objections to cuts facing the Northcott Theatre in Exeter and the Almeida in London, although Prospect contributor and chief London critic for VarietyDavid Benedict, sees things somewhat differently:

"I wouldn't wish to be seen as an apologist for the Arts Council, but is Michael Billington considering the wider picture? The Almeida's 39 per cent cut is a serious and sad loss, but it will still receive almost £1m more than the roughly equivalent Donmar Warehouse over the same three-year period. The Donmar also has an education programme, but it also tours both nationally and internationally and uses its considerably smaller subsidy to earn far more than the Almeida via box-office and sponsorship."

Benedict continued, "I too regret the cut of Exeter's Northcott, but having heard of its allegedly good work during its recently troubled history doesn't constitute an argument for its survival. And when inflicted cuts elsewhere have allowed growth in funding for regional theatre as a whole and new writing organisations Paines Plough, the Red Room and the Royal Court in particular, it's hard to complain."

Yet despite disagreements over the precise details of the cuts, it is not the Arts Council that deserves the blame for today's announcements—as Billington notes, their task is an impossible one. The government must bear responsibility. As ever Nicholas Hytner of the National Theatre tells it like it is:

"It is impossible not to lament the damage the Arts Council has been forced by the government to inflict. A few days after the coalition came to power, culture minister Jeremy Hunt addressed a gathering of arts leaders at the Roundhouse and promised us he intended to preside over a golden age for the arts. Dream on."