“According to the latest analysis from Arts & Business… “business investment [ in the arts ] in the Midlands fell by 16 per cent, to £7.3 million, funding from trusts and foundations decreased by 36 per cent to £5.7 million and donations from individuals by 23 per cent, to £6 million. The fall in the […]
Archive for the ‘Arts cuts’ Category
New Arts & Business figures for the Midlands
16 Jan 2010 at 14:58
David Haden
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Masters of unemployment
Paul Sangar on “certificate inflation” among employers recruiting staff… “In 2008 the government elected on the promise of ‘education, education, education’ slashed the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) postgraduate scholarship programme by a third, so good luck to non-scientists [aiming for a funded PhD] . Oh, and AHRC scholarships are not means-tested, so the […]
Arts attendance has not increased since 2005
28 Nov 2009 at 15:08
David Haden
Arts cuts, Creative industries, Regeneration
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The WMRO notices that West Midlands arts attendance has not increased since 2005, despite all the public money poured into audience boosting measures and audience research. In previous reports by other researchers it was revealed that none of the government targets for public participation in arts activity between 2005/6 and 2007/8 were met. It now […]
The Arts Council : Managed to Death
22 Nov 2009 at 07:09
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Creative industries, Reading
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The Arts Council : Managed to Death (PDF link) now online from the Conservatives-aligned New Culture Forum, and written by the author of June 09’s not-wholly-convincing article on the Council in Standpoint.
Art Fund Survey released
14 Nov 2009 at 08:41
David Haden
Arts cuts, Creative industries
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The Art Fund has published its 2009 survey of British museums and galleries (PDF link). Visitors were broadly up during the warm months of 2009, with 20% of venues experiencing more than a 10% rise in visitors. Redundancy payments, a decline in overseas holidays, and the weak pound, all seem to have contributed. But this […]
Foundation courses cut
23 Aug 2009 at 22:24
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Creative industries, Teaching
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Another major arts funding cut, to an absolutely vital part of the arts — foundation courses… “plans unveiled last month by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to cut funding for foundation degrees”
Recession snapshot
08 Aug 2009 at 08:01
David Haden
Arts cuts, Birmingham, Creative industries
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A new recession snapshot of the cultural and creative industries in the West Midlands (PDF link)… “evidence is now emerging of widespread cuts to local authority arts, culture and tourism budgets and/or small grant schemes. This coincides with a reduced Advantage West Midlands budget and reduced availability of funding from private investment … The number […]
Full list of AWM cuts
31 Jul 2009 at 07:49
David Haden
Arts cuts, Birmingham, Creative industries, Regeneration, Stoke-on-Trent
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Regen.net has the full list of Advantage West Midlands projects that will see major cuts. Creative projects and creative-employment projects cut include: Jewellery Quarter Joint Venture Rotunda LED Art Gallery The Innovation and Design Centre Black Country Living Museum – 1930’s High Street Business Brokers for High Growth (North Staffordshire) Regional Advantage Creative Fund – […]
Show off
The Art Newspaper has undertaken a May/June 2009 survey… “a growing number of exhibitions are being cancelled because of the recession. We have identified over 20 important shows that have been axed (or, in a few cases, postponed) later this year or in 2010. Our list almost certainly represents the tip of the iceberg. Many […]
Transactional art
Ooops. The Head of Finance at the Dutch equivalent of the Arts Council has run off with all the cash. Still, it could be worse — they could have found a £100-million black hole in the culture budget. Like our own DCMS just has.
Managing decline
12 Jul 2009 at 17:26
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Creative industries, Reading
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Two new “behind the scenes” reports on the crisis in British arts management, which should make interesting reading as the arts stares into the abyss of a seemingly inevitable 15% to 25% cut to public sector spending outside of the ‘protected areas’, possibly even eventually compounded by knock-on cuts to unemployment benefits. The first is […]
95% fewer artists’ residencies
12 Jul 2009 at 14:37
David Haden
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The Artists Information Company, in a recent (4th June) letter published in The Guardian, but seemingly not yet visible to Google… “Our research into artists’ employment in 2008 shows an 81% reduction in volume of openly offered work in October to December — 63% fewer commissions, 95% fewer residencies and no academic jobs listed. Factoring […]
British Council to be cut by a third
Oddly, the story that the British Council plans to cut 500 jobs seems to have had almost no coverage beyond obscure titles such as Personnel Today and Crain’s Manchester Business News… “the British Council, which promotes the UK overseas, announced that it intended to reduce its staff by between 400-500 jobs — about one-third of […]
Logger-heads
News just in from Canada… “Small magazine publishers and editors are fighting proposed changes to Canadian Heritages’ magazine funding criteria that will bar subsidies to any publication with an annual circulation of less than 5,000. That’s most academic journals, art magazines and literary magazines in Canada…”
Arts & humanities safe(?) as £1 billion in research funding evaporates
01 May 2009 at 08:38
David Haden
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News from the THES… “researchers will be left reeling by the news that not only is there no trace of the extra £1 billion for science that ministers were reportedly seeking to stimulate the economy, but there will be an internal raid on [research] funding pots to finance more directed programmes.” Thankfully it looks like […]
£44.5m boost to UK arts funding
26 Apr 2009 at 08:35
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Creative industries
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Created in Birmingham has welcome news of a temporary £44.5m boost to UK arts funding. It should just about mop up the severe and ongoing decline in business/trust sponsorship of the arts, caused by the recession and the ruinous decline in interest earned on bank deposits. At least for this year. So far as I […]
More arts cuts
This time next week, once the budget spin has stopped spinning long enough for Tory central office to examine the fine-print, we should know how heavily the arts are to be cut… “If the worst-case scenario is enacted, it will all but wipe out any real terms gains made in government arts funding over the […]
Shaving the arts
Birmingham shows the world how to shave a Community Arts Worker.
Arts Council England, West Midlands to be abolished?
It seems that it may be goodbye to Arts Council England, West Midlands, as the nation hobbles joyously toward the 2012 Olympics. According to The Stage and the Council’s own restructuring plan, it will be effectively merged into a far larger Arts Council region that will cover “the Midlands and South-West” — that’s coast-to-coast from […]
National Campaign for the Arts visits Brum
08 Mar 2009 at 12:13
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Birmingham
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Coming up, on Friday 27th March 09 — the NCA Arts Election Manifesto Tour rolls into Birmingham. Specifically, the Birmingham Rep. from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. The National Campaign for the Arts is holding such a string of such local events… “to develop an Arts Manifesto for the next General Election”. Any attempt to head off […]