Written evidence submitted by the Arts
Development Officer for Gloucestershire County Council (arts 213)
SUMMARY
— This letter is sent in my professional
capacity as Arts Development Officer for Gloucestershire County
Council, and has been agreed by the Council's Cabinet Member for
culture.
— We believe recent and future funding
cuts from central and local government will have an extremely
damaging effect and threaten the closure of some of the principal
professional arts organisations across Gloucestershire.
— Gloucestershire County Council, jointly
with Arts Council SW, has recently provided modest funding to
enable a consortium of arts providers to explore closer collaborative
working. The Council is considering outsourcing its arts development
budgets to the consortium on a tapering basis over the next three
years, in order to support capacity building via collaborative
working.
— We strongly support the restoration of
National Lottery funds to the original good causes including the
arts, and have responded to the recent DCMS consultation exercise
accordingly.
— We believe tax incentives will be helpful
to enhance funding from business and philanthropists, because
few Gloucestershire arts providers have the dedicated specialist
staff to pull in such funding at present.
1. What impact recent, and future, spending
cuts from central and local Government will have on the arts at
a national and local level
1.2 From my perspective as Arts Development
Officer of Gloucestershire County Council, working daily with
the dozen principal professional arts providers across the county,
I believe recent and future cuts will have an extremely damaging
effect, and threaten the closure of some of these highly valued
local charities.
1.3 Arts Council England SW currently fund
c.£1.2 million pa to the 11 principal regularly funded organisations
(RFOs) within Gloucestershire, as well as providing Lottery funding
to a number of smaller projects and programmes. They have now
had a 5% grant in aid in-year cut (£23 million). By using
its historic reserves (a non repeatable strategy), Arts Council
has this year limited the funding reduction to RFOs to just 0.5%,
which is absorbable. But Arts Council has now been asked by DCMS
to model a 25-30% cut (= £134 million pa) across four years,
which, they state, would mean the loss of many arts organisations—large
and small. We fear the most severe effects will be felt in a largely
rural county such as Gloucestershire, which has a network of smaller
voluntary sector arts providers, who would inevitably be more
vulnerable than the larger regional flagship centres.
1.4 At county level, Gloucestershire County
Council currently invests a total of £177,000 pa in grant
in aid, plus £104,000 in salaries, supporting a team of three
arts officers, two of which attract Arts Council matching support.
1.5 The County Council now faces a massive
deficit, created through a combination of rising costs (demographics;
rising landfill taxes; rising child protection costs) and declining
income. It is consequently reviewing every area of spend within
the Council and, although budget decisions will not be taken until
October/November, following public consultation, it is highly
likely that all the above funding will be cut from 1 April next
year.
1.6 Four of the six Gloucestershire district
councils, who have hitherto formed the third major funding partner
for Gloucestershire arts providers, have either withdrawn such
funding, or notified their decision to do so by 2012.
1.7 The combined impact of these cuts will
certainly threaten the viability of many of Gloucestershire's
smaller arts organisations. Those that have a higher proportion
of self generated income will weather the storm. Cheltenham Arts
Festivals, for example, have a highly skilled team dedicated to
securing sponsorship, and last year only 18% of their income came
from public sector funding. Some organisations own buildings from
which they can earn revenue: Stroud Valleys Art Space is an artist
led initiative which, through hard work and enterprise, has refurbished
and now owns a formerly derelict factory in Stroud. It now offers
affordable studios for artists. Sadly, what is likely to be lost
will be the public benefit work of these organisations—the
high quality, locally appropriate community education work which
Arts Council and local authority funding has hitherto supported.
The impact of this loss will be felt within Gloucestershire by
the most vulnerable groups, because our funding to these arts
providers has been targeted to support education and outreach
activity to disadvantaged young people, those with disabilities
and special needs, the elderly and those lacking access. It is
this work, and the smaller arts charities for whom it is the principal
focus, which will not be viable, faced with withdrawal of funding
from County, District and the Arts Council. In our view, the viability
of four or five of the current eleven principal providers will
be seriously be at risk.
2. What arts organisations can do to work
more closely together in order to reduce duplication of effort
and to make economies of scale
2.1 Gloucestershire County Council strongly
support this objective and, to this end, jointly with Arts Council
SW, we have provided £4,000 to enable Gloucestershire Arts
Framework, a consortium of arts providers, to work with a locally
based consultant to explore closer collaborative working. The
results of this work will be reported to us after 16th September.
If they are substantive, the Council may consider outsourcing
its arts development budgets to the consortium on a tapering basis
over the next three years, after which all funding would cease.
The aim would be to support capacity building within the sector
so that, by the end of three years, it is more "commission
ready" and maximising earned income to replace lost local
authority income, as part of a managed process of change. This
arts specific work complements a larger scale exercise across
all cultural services within Gloucestershire, delivered by both
county and district authorities, which is examining whether cross-cultural
countywide services can deliver better outcomes at lower costs,
via a new cultural commissioning body for the whole county. It
is our belief that the cultural sector is not yet taking advantage
of the significant opportunities available via commissioning from
health, social care and children's service budgets.
2.2 Although the results of the arts sector
work will not be published until 16 September, we have been encouraged
by the engagement of the sector thus far. Despite the daily pressures
on these small scale and overstretched charities, they have nevertheless
committed to a serious attempt at partnership working, while still
seeking to retain their own brand and identity, in recognition
of the threat to their viability which they now face. From being
a loosely networked talking shop, the consortium is now working
towards the following outcomes.
— Shared "behind the scenes"
services whereby one provider offers box office services to smaller
scale or touring organisations; or building based venues offer
hot desks to non-venue based agencies.
— Joint marketing of artistic productions
by providing space in brochures for other organisations; audience
swopping, or developing cross-artform packages of participative
opportunities for commissioners.
— Joint productions, eg joint programming
of art in unusual places; shared commissioning of a new performance,
or a joint outreach offer to young people.
— A single portal to the arts for commissioning
bodies.
— The formation of one or two consortia
of "commission ready" arts organisations which share
common policies including quality assurance, evaluation and finances.
— Off the shelf cross-artform packages
ready to sell to teachers, GPs and social care providers.
— Joint mapping of the gaps in the arts
offer across the county—and programmes devised to fill them.
— Development of a "Friends of Gloucestershire
Arts" scheme of patrons and champions.
— Recruitment of a team of high calibre
cultural volunteers to add capacity.
— Joint delivery of a county wide arts
event to showcase talent.
2.3 Overall the aim is to secure more non-arts
funding and to maximise earned income; to use this to nurture
talent; to consolidate and grow audiences and participants; and
to articulate better the value of this work through improving
the evidence base.
2.4 The ambition is high and the resources
to realise it very limited, but we hope this Council will agree
to phasing its necessary budget reductions in a way which supports
this collaborative working model. This is because we recognise
the value of the current arts infrastructure, a network of small
scale providers who are rooted in their locations, with real knowledge
of local needs, and whose locally distinctive and targeted programmes
offer better outcomes for local communities than could any single
larger scale provider.
We would be happy to provide further information
on this collaborative work as it rolls out over the next few months,
if desired.
3. What impact recent changes to the distribution
of National Lottery funds will have on arts organisations
3.1 We strongly support the restoration
of Nationally Lottery funds to the original good causes, including
the arts, and have responded to the recent DCMS consultation exercise
on National Lottery distribution accordingly.
3.2 Lottery funds provide the resources
for Arts Council SW's Grants for the Arts scheme. This is currently
the only open to application scheme available to the arts sector
in Gloucestershire to support new development initiatives. As
such, it is of critical importance.
3.3 The current average success rate for
Grants for the Arts is about 40%. In the past, it has dipped as
low as 21%. Gloucestershire scores relatively well, given its
size, because we have a network of professional arts organisations
who are skilled and energetic fundraisers, and our application
rate is high. But, for the same reason, there are many disappointments.
Over the past couple of years, several very strong applications
have been turned down by Arts Council, with feedback explicitly
stating that the only grounds for refusal were shortage of funds.
When this happens regularly, it can be extremely demotivating,
causing real loss of morale within the sector. Enhancing Grants
for the Arts funding so that sound, well researched applications
which fully meet the requisite criteria were funded would be enormously
beneficial. Such development funding is really the enterprise
capital for the sector, and its lifeblood. It is also critically
important in unlocking further funding.
4. Whether business and philanthropy can
play a long term role in funding the arts at national and local
level.
Whether there need to be more government
incentives to encourage private donations.
4.1 There may well be potential to increase
funding to the sector from the sources, but it is our view that
tax incentives would be needed to bring about significant change.
We highly value the work of Arts & Business, and warmly acknowledge
the tremendous voluntary fundraising work of arts charities and
festivals such as the Gloucester Three Choirs festival, which
has just raised £320,000 towards its £750,000 costs
in this way. But fundraising on a meaningful scale these days
requires skilled professional teams. Few of the smaller Gloucestershire
arts providers currently have the dedicated specialist staff in
place to pull in such business and philanthropic funding, and
it is our observation that, with the exception of Cheltenham Arts
Festivals, few of the smaller Gloucestershire arts providers gain
a significant percentage of their income from such sources at
present.
September 2010
|
