Arts Council England 2011: Funding, cuts and Liverpool

We’re currently wading through the data from Arts Council England (ACE) on who will continue to receive funding in the Merseyside region.

After an initial flood of spreadsheets and conflicting data it appears that Urban Strawberry Lunch, who run the Bombed Out Church (St Luke’s Church) on Hardman/Berry Street and the Spike Theatre Company, who recently put on The Games at the Unity Theatre will not receive any funding from the Arts Council on an ongoing basis.

Of Liverpool’s ‘big-hitters’, the Liverpool Philharmonic will receive a cut of 11.1% in real terms over the next four years, with funding down to £2,172,301 in 2014-25 from £2,225,206 in 2011/12.

Meanwhile the Everyman and Playhouse Theatres will see a cut in real terms of 4.9%, although cash funding will rise over the next four years. The award essentially maintains a similar level of funding the E&P currently receives.

The theatre company will receive £1,721,833 in 2014/15, down from £1,649,019 for 2011/12. The Everyman will close later this year, with David Morisssey starring in a new production of Macbeth as a parting shot, as part of a huge redevelopment programme to improve facilities.

FACT will see a cut in cash, with a real terms cut of 11 per cent over four years to £1,049,716 by 2014/15.

“We understand that the Arts Council has had to make a lot of difficult choices given government cuts,” said CEO and Director Mike Stubbs.

“Therefore it’s a huge relief to learn that FACT has retained its Arts Council funding, but the picture is far from rosy. With City Council funding cuts, and the recession biting, these are really difficult and painful times for the cultural sector as a whole.”

The Biennial will see steady increases between now and 2015, with cash increases over the four years up to £718,333 by 2014/15.

Africa Oye will see a cut in real terms of around ten per cent. The music festival organiser moved this year to a ticketed event in an effort to cover the loss of funding from ACE. By 2015 it will receive £170,567 - less than it received in 2010/11.

The Bluecoat will see a small cash cut over the next four years, down by 11 per cent in real terms to £508,091.

Brouhaha will see its funding increase broadly in line with inflation.

DaDa Fest will see an 17.3 per cent increase over the next four years - an award comfortably above the predicted rate of inflation.

The Unity will receive a broadly similar award until 2015, with its funding broadly increasing with inflation to stand at £284,000 by 2015.

The Open Eye Gallery gets a real-term increase over the next four years, bringing its total award to over £200,000 by 2015. The photographic gallery is moving to new premises at the waterfront this year.

The Writing On The Wall festival will received funding as a non-regularly funded organisation, receiving an increasing grant between 2012-2015, as wil the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival.

The Black-E, Collective Encounters, Merseyside Dance Initiative, Hope Street Limited and Walk The Plank get big increases over the next four years. Milapfest gets a modest increases too.

We’re still looking at the data relating to Liverpool and the region. We can’t guarantee the accuracy of this stuff - and there may be the odd slip in how we’ve interpreted the numbers, so bear with us. We’re interested to hear your thoughts on the cuts and increases - comment below…

A spreadsheet by Defnet Media outlines organisations not receiving ACE funding England beywond this year.