In the news today…
“Shoppers in Birmingham’s City Centre were confronted by the spectacular vision of the city’s Arts Czar this morning … the charismatic figure of Theodore Parker Bowles, Birmingham’s Arts Czar since 2000. Wearing nothing but his specially commissioned pink latex body suit, accessorised with juxtaposing vivid blue codpiece and shimmering nipple tassels, Parker Bowles strutted his stuff along Corporation Street between 10 and 11 am, hoisting a placard demanding “Attention for THE ARTS”. Theodore was there to promote Damien Damnation’s controversial new production entitled Look At Me, I Get Funding.”
Hmmm… is “Theodore Parker Bowles” meant to be a play on the name Brian Woods-Scawen, the head of Culture West Midlands? “Damien Damnation” obviously = Stelarc.
Ironically, Look At Me, I Get Funding is probably a suitable title for any shows put on by the theatres that remain after the coming Arts Council bloodbath…
“The Arts Council is planning to scrap funding for nearly one in five of the theatres, orchestras and arts organisations that it supports. The cull [next April], the biggest since the council was set up in 1946, is being described this weekend as a “bloodbath”. “
195 arts organisations “will not have their grants renewed in April 2008″, and the letters are going out now. As I wrote on the 23rd November it seems like the recent official spin about a “rise” in arts funding was actually a smokescreen for cuts. But I didn’t realise how massive those cuts would be. The secret price that Arts Council England seems to have paid for its own shabby survival is to accept the Director of Culture at the DCMS being parachuted in to become the new head of the Council just after savage UK-wide cuts have been made to the arts.
Given the decades-long underfunding of the arts in Birmingham (Terry Grimley of the Post has been eloquent on the matter), and the city’s attitude to artists, one can’t help but think that Birmingham will feel its arts losses more than others.
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