Shattered theatres vow to fight funding cuts
Move to switch cash from the arts to sport in the capital. Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
for The Guardian.


Some of London's most important theatres and performance groups last night promised to fight plans to slash their funding in an extraordinary round of cuts by the capital's councils.
There was anger as it emerged that those worst-hit work with children, the poor, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, the homeless, pupils excluded from schools and ex-offenders - the very people government cultural policy is supposedly aimed at.

The timing and scale of the cuts mean the future of some are in jeopardy if the proposal to switch funds traditionally allocated to the arts to sport is not overturned.

Among the groups who face having their grants taken away entirely by the Association of London Government, which pools cash from the capital's 33 councils, are Cardboard Citizens, the only homeless people's theatre company in Britain.

click for more

***************************************

Here is some comment from a dance perspective from londondance.com:

Following ALG’s announcement about the loss of their annual £34,000 grant, Sue Hoyle, General Manager of The Place, issued the following statement:

‘The Place is very disappointed and concerned at the loss of our funding from the Association of London Government (ALG). We have been funded from this source for over 20 years. As a result, we will have to reduce the amount of education work that we do with children and young people in the local neighbourhood and across London.'

click for more

***************************************

Feedback
To register your comments on the ALG decision write to:
Shenuka Jeyaratnam
Overview Team
Social Policy and Grants,
Association of London Government
59, Southwark Street
London SE1 0AL
Tel: 020 7934 9999

righttoreply@alg.co.uk

CriticalDance will be sending a letter deploring the cuts.

A short piece from The Stage:

ALG cuts branded worst in a decade
by Richard Foster for The Stage

Theatres and performance groups across London are facing a funding shortfall of £8 million following a review of the process by which the Association of London Government allocates its money.

Funding totalling £20 million has been requested from all cultural projects in the capital - including sports, visual arts and performing arts. However, only £12 million is being made available after the new body, which replaced the London Borough Grants Scheme, undertook the first analysis for 20 years of the grant-giving procedure initiated by the LBGS.

Among the groups affected are Polka and Unicorn, two major children's theatres, the Young Vic, Hackney Empire, Oval House, the Greenwich Theatre, the Place, Hoxton Hall, the Royal Court, Sadler's Wells, the Roundhouse Trust, the Orange Tree Theatre and the London Symphony Orchestra.

click for more

Great news:

ALG defer decision to cut arts funding
From londondance.com

Arts Council London issued the following statement, following the Association of London Government's decision to defer decisions in cuts in fudning to arts organisations in the capital:
"The Arts Council/London Arts is pleased that the Association of London Government (ALG) Grants Committee decided to defer final decisions on most of the recommendations for grants to cultural organisations over the period to 2007. We also welcome the extension of current funding for these organisations to end June 2003. But we remain very concerned about the implications for the funding of arts bodies in London.

click for more

Making a crisis out of drama
Theatres in London that reach out to community groups are facing cuts to their education grants because of a plan to . . . er . . . target community groups. Maev Kennedy in The Guardian talks to baffled managers.

They should be dancing in the aisles at the Hackney Empire. Instead, with other theatres doing some of the most admired education work across London, they are counting pennies and wondering which projects to cut.
The same dismal sums are being done at the Royal Court, Sadler's Wells, and the Young Vic, all theatres with a national profile that are also passionately engaged with their local communities.

A major review of local authority grants has left some theatre grants completely axed, others partially reprieved, and others dangling in the wind at the very time when they should be planning their programmes for the new school year next September.

click for more