ARTS COUNCIL FUNDING CUTS/INCREASES

The Arts Council of England has released details of funding for arts organisations up to 2014/15.

The decisions have been reached against the background of public spending cuts in the Government’s attempt to reduce the national deficit.

I haven’t had a chance to look at things in great detail yet, but it seems most major dance companies (The Royal Opera House, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Phoenix Dance Company) have all had funding cut by 15% in real terms over the period. A notable exception is Rambert Dance Company, with a cut of just 4.4%.

Among dance organisations the stand out figure is a 43% cut in funding for Dance Umbrella, 29% for Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, 20% for the Contemporary Dance Trust (The Place).

Dance companies receiving increased funding in real terms include Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company (8%), George Piper Dances (Ballet Boyz) (15%), Retina Dance Company (25%), Wayne McGregor Random Dance (29%), Ballet Lorent (35%) and Hofesh Shechter Dance Company (73%).

The full Arts Council statement can be read at Arts Council statement

A few headline figures:

Across all the arts, total National Portfolio investment between April 2012 and March 2015 Grant in aid: £956m

Lottery: £54m for touring. £31m for children and young people

The Arts Council received 1,333 applications to join the National Portfolio, submitting bids for a total of £1.4 billion.

The new National Portfolio of 695 organisations replaces the previous regularly funded organisations portfolio of 849.

110 new organisations have been added to the National Portfolio.

791 previously regularly funded organisations applied for National Portfolio funding, 585 were successful.

206 former regularly funded organisations will no longer receive funding.

Here are the figures for all dance companies and organisations on the list:

Figures in this order: 2010/11 funding (£), 2014/15 funding (£), change in real terms (i.e. accounting for expected inflation).
Most reductions are fairly linear except that many organisations see an increase in cash terms in 2013/14 followed by a further cut. Exceptions are noted.

Reductions in funding:

Ludus Dance, 301,781, 99,809, -69.9%
Dance Umbrella, 587,021, 367,359, -43.0% (most of the reduction occurs in 2012/13)
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, 344,893, 270,000, -28.7%
Contemporary Dance Trust (The Place), 2,130,664, 1,872,113, -20.0%
Birmingham Royal Ballet, 8,161,785, 7,623,107, -15.0%
English National Ballet, 6,861,286, 6,408,441, -15.0%
Phoenix Dance Theatre, 478,259, 447,172, -14.9%
Northern Ballet, 2,825,644, 2,641,977, -14.9%
RJC Dance Productions, 83,957, 78,500, -14.9%
DV8 Physical Theatre, 445,489, 432,066, -11.7%
Attik Dance, 62,727, 61,295, -11.0%
Dance Touring Consortium, 524,728, 512,751, -11.0%
Cheshire Dance, 94,199, 92,049, -11.0%
Swindon Dance, 220,208, 215,182, -11.0%
Tavaziva Dance Company, 191,164, 186,801, -11.0%
Motionhouse Dance Theatre, 276,385, 270,077, -11.0%
Deda, 253,725, 248,755, -10.7%
Foundation For Community Dance, 202,254, 198,374, -10.7%
Siobhan Davies Dance, 603,448, 607,365, -8.4%
Sadler's Wells, 2,455,848, 2,563,118, -5.0%
Rambert Dance Company, 2,224,110, 2,334,421, -4.4%
Modern Masterpieces (Michael Clark Company), 199,000, 208,870, -4.4%

No change

Akram Khan Company, 204,817, 225,000

Increases in funding (tends to be a major increase in 2012/13):

Candoco Dance Company, 373,541, 415,530, 1.3%
Ace Dance And Music, 204,820, 231,633, 3.0%
Akademi, 233,266, 264,677, 3.3%
DanceXchange, 518,042, 615,826, 8.2%
Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company, 209,891, 250,000, 8.4%
Dancefest, 73,461, 89,216, 10.6%
East London Dance, 205,202, 251,904, 11.8%
State Of Emergency Productions, 204,819, 251,904, 12.0%
George Piper Dances (Ballet Boyz), 182,061, 230,386, 15.2%
South East Dance, 463,203, 595,000, 17.0%
Kala Sangam, 149,250, 199,619, 21.8%
Merseyside Dance Initiative, 94,199, 128,785, 24.5%
Retina Dance Company, 83,958, 115,456, 25.2%
DanceEast, 598,190, 835,000, 27.1%
Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, 379,392, 537,649, 29.0%
Dance City, 393,932, 577,977, 33.6%
Ballet Lorent, 169,163, 250,000, 34.6%
Tilted Productions, 122,786, 190,000, 40.9%
Greenwich Dance Agency, 254,832, 399,230, 42.6%
Dance4, 304,281, 491,527, 47.1%
Yorkshire Dance, 199,397, 339,982, 55.2%
Dance Initiative Greater Manchester, 94,199, 176,365, 70.5%
StopGAP Dance Company, 106,492, 200,000, 71.0%
Hofesh Shechter Company, 209,890, 400,000, 73.5%
Vincent Dance Theatre, 134,855, 273,162, 84.4%
Dance South West, 180,549, 403,046, 103.3%
Balbir Singh Dance Company, 51,093, 157,013, 179.8%

Organisations not previously regularly funded (2014/15 figure only shown). In all cases funding starts in 2012/13:

Association of Dance of the African Diaspora, 125,952
Protein Dance, 212,636
Company Chameleon, 152,603
2 FaCeD DaNcE Company, 99,712
Sonia Sabri Company, 99,712

Mark Skipper, chief executive of Northern Ballet, has written an open letter to Alan Davey, chief executive of Arts Council England about the effects of reductions to Northern Ballet's core budget in The Guardian.

The Guardian