Alan Davey answer funding questions

Alan Davey answers your Arts Council funding questions

Following funding and cuts announcements, Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey took part in a live Q&A to answer some of your questions.

The big picture is this: the arts council had its budget cut by 29.6% with a condition that it could not pass on frontline spending cuts of more than 15%. It chose to take that figure as an overall figure and shake up the national portfolio. That's why 206 organisations had their funding cut altogether and 110 new organisations were brought into the mix.

All the big beasts – the Royal Opera, the National Theatre and so on – remain intact with cuts of around 11-15%.

Many have seen their cash go up such as the Arcola theatre in Dalston, London (an 82% real terms increase) while others have gone down – the Almeida in Islington, London, is losing 39% of its money.

Then there are the groups applying for first time funding who did not make it – the Rose in Kingston for example – and they're not, to say the least, happy.

There is no right of appeal for any of the arts organisations but there is the right to ask Davey, who took over in 2008, some questions.

Click on this link to see the questions asked and Alan Davey's responses. Q&A

The day is here

Many WAP members have been awaiting Arts Council England's decisions about who they will invite to be part of the National Portfolio funding scheme.

I think it's fair to say that from Wiltshire's perspective we can breathe a sigh of relief in that all of our former regularly funded organisations have proved themselves worthy of National Portfolio status, we have a couple of WAP members who had hoped to have been able to become regularly funded by ACE in this new process who were unfortunately not successful this time, but we do have a new regularly funded organisation, The Pound Arts Trust, which is fabulous news. Have a look at this link for the nationwide picture of National Portfolio organisations. http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/national-portfolio-funding/

These are ACE's headlines

Total National Portfolio investment between April 2012 and March 2015:

* Grant in aid: £956 million
* Lottery: £54 million for touring. £31 million for children and young people
* We 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 regularly funded organisations applied for National portfolio funding, 585 were successful
* 206 former regularly funded organisations will no longer receive funding
* Lottery and the portfolio between April 2012 and March 2015
* Touring receives major support with £18 million Lottery a year earmarked for portfolio organisations
* £10.5 million Lottery a year targeted at work with children and young people, to ensure vital educational work continues

So a huge congratulations to all of Wiltshire's National Portfolio Organisations and to everyone who adds to the diverse arts work that goes on in Wiltshire with or without public funding. Let's work together to ensure we provide the very best arts opportunities for our communities and arts professionals.