Back in November last year, we reported that Newcastle City Council was planning to cut its arts budget entirely as part of £90 million planned savings over the next three years.
Following pressure from shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman and a vocal campaign in the city and beyond, it was announced last week that existing revenue support for the arts will be replaced by a ‘sustainable arts investment fund’ to the tune of at least £600,000 per annum by 2016. This represents around 48% of the total amount formerly available through revenue funding.
Under the draft proposals, the new fund will be overseen by an independent panel and financed initially from business rates and other sources. The council has also invited businesses and others in the city to top up the fund with donations.
Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council, said: “We know how valuable arts and culture are to the city. We are asking for people to contribute because we know that people really value the arts, and the more people contribute themselves to match the money that the council will be putting in, the bigger the fund and the more successful our arts and culture will be.”
But for the city’s comunity of artists and arts organisations this may feel like an attempt to negate the overwhelmingly negative response generated by last year’s cuts announcement.
“Clearly there has been a desire to detoxify the Newcastle cuts story,” says Graeme Rigby of Amber Film and Photography Collective, one of the organisations that was due to see its funding cut as part of the original plans. “48% is better than 0%, but the devil is in the detail – we don’t know how this is going to work or who will run it.”
Proposed budget cuts in the city will be far reaching. At a protest rally on Saturday over 1,000 people demonstrated their anger at cuts to public services.
Rigby continues: “It’s important to recognise that it’s not just about the arts. The proposals also concern libraries, museums, youth services and a host of other areas of council funding. These things interconnect in all kinds of ways and this recent announcement is only about the funding for independent arts organisations.
“How the proposed ‘sustainable arts investment fund’ will work may not be made clear for a while but arts organisations, like most others, need a stable basis from which to plan, from which to fundraise and from which to generate income. It will be helpful if there’s a proper discussion about how the investment fund will operate before it is set up.”
Newcastle City Council will meet to approve budget proposals on 6 March.
More on a-n.co.uk:
Newcastle City Council cuts and the visual arts
100% cuts in Moray: “It sets the arts sector adrift”
