Written evidence submitted by &Co
(arts 36)
SUMMARY
— In response to The Culture, Media and
Sport Committee inquiry and call for evidence into The Funding
of the Arts and Heritage, &Co is pleased to be able to provide
the following written submission on behalf of Chief Executive
Officers/Directors from 36 arts and cultural organisations located
in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
— &Co, formerly known as Audiences
Yorkshire, supports arts and cultural organisations with their
public engagement needs through the provision of:
— research and market analysis, strategic
and tactical planning, evaluation and business performance benchmarking;
— skills development and skills sharing
through our membership base of 81 subscribers representing 189
arts and heritage organisations in the Yorkshire and Humber region;
— on and offline routes to market via
our market leading print distribution and web listings guide and
online ticketing service.
— In August 2010 &Co contacted Chief
Executive Officers, representing a broad cross-section of arts
and heritage organisations at a local level and asked them to
complete an e-survey to assess what impact recent, and future,
spending cuts from central and local Government will have on the
arts and heritage in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
— This submission has been informed by
the responses to the e-survey which achieved a 44% response rate.
— Respondents to the e-survey can be categorised
into the following organisation types, 92% of which are currently
in receipt of public funding:
X6 Performing Arts Companies;
X9 Theatres or Arts Centres; and
X2 Umbrella type organisations.
— The following organisations are happy
to be identified as named respondents: Beverley Folk Festival,
Kala Sangam, Music in the Round, National Coal Mining Museum for
England, Northern Ballet Theatre, Red Ladder Theatre Company,
Thackray Medical Museum, The Civic (Barnsley Civic Enterprise
Ltd) and Wakefield Jazz.
EVIDENCE
1. The findings from the e-survey reveal
how arts and cultural leaders are anticipating that the spending
cuts to local and central Government will impact on their organisations:
"Reduction in public spending has had
a much greater impact on our income than the recession to 2010
has had. We cannot respond quickly enough to mitigate against
the loss of income, so it will take us 12-24 months to recover
from the losses suffered in 2010." E-survey respondent,
August 2010.
(a) The impact of spending cuts affects all respondents,
91% of whom are still engaged in planning for the impact of the
cuts. Over the course of this financial year and next, finance
and fundraising generated through Local Authorities is predicted
to be the worst affected by some distance.
(b) Ancillary income, box office and corporate
hospitality events are all anticipated to suffer. Corporate sponsorship
is expected to tail off from financial year 2011-12.
(c) The annual programmes for arts and cultural organisations
are set to change with the amount of artistic work dropping significantly
(net[14]
-50% in 2010-11 and net -68% in 2011-12).
(d) Resources for and the amount of education
or outreach is also anticipated to fall. As is the number of audiences
for these organisations.
(e) Offline marketing and audience development
resources are anticipated to have a major decrease (net -60% in
2010-11 and net -52% in 2011-12).
(f) Professional development for staff, staffing
and salary levels are all anticipated to drop by a significant
proportion of survey respondents.
2. &Co asked arts and cultural leaders
how they were preparing to adapt their organisations to the changes
ahead.
(a) Local Authorities, Festivals and Museums
and Galleries represented the most negative feeling organisations
towards the spending cuts; Theatres or Arts Centres presented
themselves as the most positive. This may be due to the higher
proportion of their income which comes from Box Office sales/fee
paying audiences.
(b) The negativity was centred on the impact
of funding cuts particularly in relation to the anticipated decrease
in audience numbers and corporate hospitality take up. It is anticipated
that this will require organisations to consider alternative sources
of funding or additional income streams.
"It will be important for us not to go
into `victim mode' and assume that a major cut back in finance
is the death of the organisation. We are embarking upon a programme
of significant organisational change which will meet cuts in finance
through increased income generation, efficiencies and carefully
targeted cuts in output. If Government helps us to deal with the
situation we will emerge better placed to deal with future management
challenges." E-survey respondent, August 2010.
(c) However, in the wake of change, a degree
of optimism or positivity was also voiced. A focus on collaboration,
networking, information sharing and pooling of resources were
cited most frequently as a way for organisations to adapt to in-year
and future funding cuts. 11% of respondents stated that they were
considering a formal merger.
3. In conclusion, &Co can identify for
the DCMS inquiry that:
(a) Responses to this e-survey suggest that the
effect of spending cuts will be immediate, severe and potentially
long-lasting.
(b) The cuts from Local Authorities are expected
to have an even wider impact that cuts to Arts Council England
funding.
(c) In-year, cuts are likely to impact negatively
on the quality of the artistic product and the number of visitors/audiences
with whom an organisation engages.
(d) Beyond 2011-12, respondents report that the
impact will shift to a reduction in the quantity of artistic product
and the diversity of its audiences. The result of this is predicted
to be less work produced and little increase in the diversity
of audiences.
(e) As income from public sources is anticipated
to decrease, so is earned income and corporate support. The marginal
optimism felt about the level of support from individual donors
does not offset the clear picture of anticipated reduced total
income across an organisation's income portfolio.
(f) Museums and Galleries feel particularly challenged
in identifying new income streams and will require specialist
attention and support in dealing with these challenges.
(g) As a result it is anticipated that there
will be significant structural and organisational changes necessary
to accommodate a lower level of public funding. Arts and heritage
organisations, in particular museums and galleries will therefore
require professional support to see them through a major programme
of transition.
(h) Organisations are considering a wide range
of responses to the challenges and anticipate needing a wide range
of both in-house and external support.
(i) Historically, organisations would have been
able to look to DCMS arm's-length bodies such as the Museums,
Libraries and Archives Council for support towards meeting their
organisational development needs. The abolition of such infrastructure
support bodies means that the DCMS needs to clearly identify to
its publicly funded organisations where reliable support will
be found in the future to sustain Arts and Heritage organisations
through the spending cuts.
(j) &Co is part of a UK-wide network of Audience
Development Agencies expert in supporting organisations with the
expertise required to engage and develop audiences (www.audiencesuk.org)
and we see audiences as a business critical element in the income
earning potential of arts and heritage organisations in the future.
Such organisations including &Co are vital to the arts and
heritage infrastructure and part-funded by Arts Council England.
These organisations have the skills, market intelligence and resources
to support arts and heritage organisations turn their existing
businesses into models that can be sustained despite the spending
cuts.
(k) Where support and expertise is required from
outside the Arts and Heritage sector eg external professional
advice from Human Resources and Legal consultants, DCMS needs
to ensure that effective signposting to reliable support channels
is in place with immediate effect. This will help support arts
and heritage organisations with the imminent and difficult decisions
they will be taking to ensure their survival and sustainability
and for the wider benefit of public life.
September 2010
14 By net percent we mean the proportion of respondents
answering positively subtracted by the proportion answering negatively.
ie if 10% expected an increase; 30% expected no change and 60%
expected a decrease, the net percent would be a 50% expected decrease. Back
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