A press cutting:
'When the [Arts] Council announced the results of its first round [of arts funding] in March – just over £114m to 26 projects – Max Stafford-Clark was moved to describe the Council (in The Guardian) as "absolute vermin", focusing on the dominance of London's "big-hitters" as the largest recipients of this pot of the council's largesse. [ACE] chief executive Alan Davey responded with a defence of the council's geographical reach.
'To recap, the Council's capital programme for the current four years amounts to £214.6m – just over half of this was allocated in March with a further £50m available in 2012-13 and £50m in 2013-14.
'At one level, the March announcement highlights a rich array of projects, but at another it provides a worryingly narrow picture, both of future artistic excellence in England and of the spatial contribution arts and culture investment might make to economic growth and development.
'Of the £114m provisionally allocated, 47% goes to eight London projects, and the next two highest regional allocations are to the south-east (14%) and south-west (13%). These three southern regions take 74% of awards, which certainly gives a particular perspective on the government's avowed economic "rebalancing" priority.'
Another announcement:
Successful Catalyst: Endowment programme applicants
'Catalyst is a £100 million culture sector wide private giving investment programme aimed at helping cultural organisations diversify their income streams and access more funding from private sources. The new programme is made up of investment from Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and the DCMS.'
'Arts' Organisations received £30.5m of which £18.5m (61%) wenet to London-based organisations.
'Heritage' organisations received £27.5m of which £15m (55%) went to London-based organisations and a further £6m (22%) to Portsmouth (HMS Victory and the Mary Rose).
It would be unfair to mention that many of the London recipients of the heritage money (eg National Portrait Gallery, British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum) already receive large government grants: perish the thought.
