Written evidence submitted by the Opera
and Music Theatre Forum (arts 97)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This submission focuses on the small—midscale
opera and music theatre sector.
The Impact of cuts
The spending cuts will not only affect publicly
funded companies but will have a significant indirect effect on
unfunded companies. In the small—mid-scale sector there
is little waste in terms of management, creative and technical
aspects, so there is little to cut to meet the income shortfall
except productions and performances. This will affect sales and
provide less choice to audiences.
Small and midscale companies are particularly
vulnerable and cuts must not lead to the retention of the flagship
companies at the expense of the rest of the sector.
The Level and Distribution of Public Funding
Whatever the level of funding it is vital that
it supports a healthy ecology which contains flourishing flagship
and grassroots companies. The small and midscale sector provides
the highest overall proportion of available performances, yet
receives a tiny proportion of the available funding. This needs
to be addressed.
Partnerships
A wide variety already exists and partnerships
have their limitations but increased sharing of resources in terms
of supply networks, information, data, training and developing
talent could help to strengthen the whole sector.
National Lottery
The increase in investment that redistribution
will bring into the arts is welcomed although changes in the proportion
of short to long-term funding could have drawbacks.
The Role of Business and Philanthropy
The government should increase incentives to
tax payers whilst recognising that an increase in philanthropy
cannot replace the loss of public funding, especially amongst
the smaller, more experimental and regional companies.
Arms length bodies
Although there are no current plans regarding
the Arts Council of England we would like to note that in general
where there are funds to distribute OMTF believes in the principle
of an arm's length body which has an overview of the sector and
is concerned with its growth and development.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Opera and Music Theatre Forum is
the representative body for professional opera and music theatre
companies in the UK. Established to promote and support the work
of the small and mid-scale opera and music theatre companies,
members include touring companies with small ensembles, building
based festivals, educational establishments and individuals working
together to develop an environment in which opera and music theatre
can flourish.
1.2 The opera and music theatre sector (OMT)
covers a very diverse range of activity including hip-hop theatre,
early opera, film and music installations, devised opera/music
theatre, themed concerts or shows, and "operatic musicals",
delivered by organizations from the smallest working with piano
accompaniment to full-scale grand opera. Research for a recent
survey[42]
indicated some 250 organisations producing or proposing to produce
OMT including educational and training establishments, producing
venues and festivals and vocal and orchestral groups.
1.3 There are six large, flagship companies
and the remainder are middle and small scale. This latter element
of the sector provides the highest overall proportion of opera
and music theatre performances, accounting for some 54 % of professional
performances across the British Isles and 55% of those in England.
These companies are crucial to the availability of the broad range
of repertoire being created. They also make a significant contribution
to the development of talent and to the development and availability
of new material, being the major supplier of contemporary opera
and commissioning new orchestrations and translations of existing
work.
1.4 Although we do have members amongst
the biggest companies the majority of our members are small—mid-scale
so we are responding with that segment in mind.
2. THE IMPACT
OF RECENT
AND FUTURE
SPENDING CUTS
It has been widely indicated that both proposed
and potential cuts would have a devastating effect on arts provision
generally, limiting the publics' access to the arts. It has been
argued that given the return upon investment the proposed cuts
are shortsighted and unnecessarily draconian. It is worth adding
the perspective from the small—midscale opera and music
theatre sector where the level of public investment is currently
extremely low (see 3.3).
2.1 Where the cuts will come from
Opera and music theatre organisations have a
wide variety of financial profiles with mixed income streams from
ticket sales, other earned income, arts councils, local authorities,
other public sector sources (such as health initiatives) trusts
and foundations, commercial sources and private individuals. At
the extremes the country house/conventional repertoire model whose
audiences mainly fall into the higher tax payer bracket is likely
to show a very high percentage of individual donors, commercial
sponsorship and no public funding and a small experimental company
which has managed to make its mark and with more mixed audiences
is likely to have a higher proportion of public funding and a
smaller proportion of commercial and private funding. In between
is just about every kind of mix imaginable.
Organisations that receive regular public funding
(a very small percentage of this sector) will face the obvious
challenges of losing part, or all, of their grants towards core
costs and/or projects; they are also likely to lose some of their
commercial and private funding since the granting of public funding
indicates a certain level of confidence in the product and the
organisation and attracts funding from other sources. They will
also face increased competition when they try to make up this
funding from other sources. In order to be effective, businesses
need to plan ahead: Those companies who currently receive a high
proportion of public funding face a particular challenge in that
that they are unable to do this with any certainty until their
allocation is decided or they have found a completely new business
model—an exercise that will take considerable time.
Many organisations in the sector are specifically
or broadly educational. Some provide training and experience for
singers and musicians and others help to develop life skills and
experience that bring social benefits to the participants. These
kinds of organizations depend heavily on funding from public sources
or trusts and foundations and do not always have a means of increasing
their earned income.
Small and midscale organizations, typically
face greater challenges in earning income and in obtaining funding
of any kind than larger-scale well-established organizations and
the removal of any element of regular funding may lead to their
collapse.
It will not be business as usual for those companies
who do not receive regular public funding because the whole infrastructure
will be affected. Competition for funding of all kinds will be
greater and possibly from better-known brands. A significant number
of small companies are indirectly funded since they receiving
fees for performances (rather than the more usual box office split
of the theatre world) from theatres, concert halls and festivals.
Many of these promoters are currently in receipt of public funding,
so cuts to them will have an immediate effect on the non-funded
companies. Local authorities are a significant funder of companies
both directly and indirectly. This source of income has been diminishing
and will drop further. Companies who depend largely on commercial
sources and to a slightly lesser extent, private individuals,
are already feeling the pinch.
Companies already face a drop in ticket and
other sales as a result of the economic situation and those that
tour or undertake private/corporate bookings or educational work
in schools and colleges report a drop in bookings which will increase
as venues, festivals and concert halls lose public funding.
Many companies fear that the cost of mounting
and touring productions is likely to rise as suppliers of goods
and services, often small businesses themselves, may be forced
to increase costs or limit services.
Even companies who view themselves as completely
commercial—ie they produce a relatively popular product
and rely almost entirely on ticket sales or fees—will feel
the effect of less cash in the infrastructure and less in the
pockets of their buyers.
2.2 The effect of cuts
Small and midscale organizations are flexible,
open to change and extremely cost effective. OMTF's recent survey
indicates that some 79% of expenditure goes into production and
creative activity. Most have very few, if any, administrative
staff to carry out the basic functions of drumming up business
and paying the bills and function by bringing them in only during
the parts of the year when there are performances and/or rely
on a high degree of multidexterity among very small and dedicated
teams. There are certainly very few salaried creative and technical
staff; the vast majority are freelance. There is a high volume
of volunteering in the sector: a recent survey indicates that
81% of respondents rely on them for some form of administration.
Whilst volunteers may work with passion they cannot bring the
degree of expertise that a good business requires in order to
be successful. Where there are several administrative staff, jobs
may go but on the whole there is little opportunity to cut staffing
or administrative budgets to meet funding shortfalls and cuts
could lead to companies being unable to manage themselves and
their seasons/tours effectively.
The main costs within these companies is payments
to artists frequently followed by design and make of costumes
and sets. Payments to artists would be difficult to reduce since
many small companies pay the minimum recommended rates. Reducing
the amount of rehearsal and preparation time would lead to a reduction
in the quality of the product. Reduction in design costs would
make the product less attractive to audiences in an era when high
production values are increasingly the norm.
Opera and music theatre are often viewed as
expensive artforms but in the small and midscale sector it is
unusual to find choruses or large orchestras—unless the
organisations run community opera or undertake educational projects.
Most companies commission special orchestrations for small musical
forces or commission work that relies on small numbers on stage
and in the pit. Apart from making the product more affordable
this also makes the work more flexible in touring terms and more
accessible to a wider range of audiences.
The effect of cuts overall is likely to be that
both producing companies and their hosts will become more risk
averse resulting in more predictable programmes and less tour
bookings. There will be fewer productions and fewer performances.
Audiences will have less choice and where organizations have a
social or educational purpose members of the public will cease
to benefit from the services provided. Organisations that become
less visible are unlikely to be able to build useful relationships
with their potential hosts, their potential funders or their potential
audiences. The regions will be particularly affected.
The combination of the current economic situation
and specific arts cuts could have a devastating effect on many
organizations, particularly the smaller ones, not only reducing
the volume of opportunities for the public to see the work but
reducing the work experience available to those who will be its
future.
3. THE LEVEL
OF PUBLIC
FUNDING
Whatever the level of public funding that is
available in the short or long-term future, it must support a
healthy sector from the flagship companies undertaking world-class
projects that are admired and attract audiences from all over
the world to the grass roots where experiments are undertaken,
the diversity of society is reflected, boundaries broken, the
artform is developed, audiences grown and practitioners learn
their craft.
Like all arts sectors, the elements are interdependent.
National companies represent the highest standards and production
values and offer the highest financial rewards to successful practitioners
but they draw creative resources from people who have learned
their craft composing, directing, designing and performing in
small companies at the minimum wage. The availability of a wide
variety of "product" delivered by a diversity of organizations
and types of organisations not only provides a choice of services
and activities to audiences of all kinds but stimulates healthy
intellectual competition and new creative and entrepreneurial
ideas across the sector.
Opera is one of the more expensive artforms,
but the general perception of it as being costly and elitist is
often based on a misinformed view of the work of companies with
the highest profiles and the highest public subsidy rather than
the sector as a whole. Most small—midscale companies commission,
developing and adapting opera and music theatre works for small
forces (both in the pit and on stage) in order to present it to
diverse audiences and to perform it in smaller auditoria or in
unconventional spaces.
These companies perform a significant function
in developing and growing audiences, both existing and new, their
repertoire is often tailored and relevant to specific communities
at ticket prices that are no more costly than the local theatre
or cinema.
Public funding should ensure that existing and
potential audiences have the opportunity to experience artforms
in all their variety both now and in the future; it should ensure
that everyone has the opportunity to try different things and
to engage in new experiences; and to benefit from participating
in the life-changing experiences that much performing art, both
on the main stage and in its outreach and educational projects,
can provide.
4. THE DISTRIBUTION
OF PUBLIC
FUNDING
Unfortunately the policy behind the current
distribution of funding within the opera and music theatre sector
has not for some time reflected the needs.
As in any part of the arts world it is the small
and mid-scale companies that have particular problems in generating
income and need investment from the public purse. Companies in
this sector are often undertaking radical, challenging and experimental
work; are little-known; under-resourced; and/or based in areas
where local public and private funding and philanthropy are rare.
In this sector the major proportion of regular
public funding goes to five large-scale companies operating regularly
in England together with one midscale company (98.9% of the Arts
Council England's grant-in-aid funding for opera and music theatre).
The rest of the sector receives the remaining 1.1% as well as
some Lottery project grants. Only five companies within the small—midscale
sector (including two training organizations) have RFO status.
None of them are small scale. By comparison there are 36 regularly
funded producing and/or touring companies within the dance sector
including four large scale companies.
The existing situation does little either to
reflect the work being undertaken or nurture the creative resources
of future. Moreover there is a huge danger in the coming cuts
that the available funds will go to ensure that the flagship institutions
survive at the expense of the small and mid-scale organizations.
5. WORKING WITH
OTHER ORGANISATIONS
TO REDUCE
DUPLICATION OF
EFFORT AND
MAKE ECONOMIES
OF SCALE
Small—midscale companies have few resources
so it is difficult to imagine how reducing duplication of effort
making economies of scale might work. Sharing of physical resources
has been considered in the past and is rarely practical owing
to working patterns and the geographical spread of companies.
Some back office services are already provided by external specialist
support services or umbrella bodies.
The OMT sector has already made significant
steps in creating relationships between different kinds of organisations
in which knowledge and intellectual resources are shared. Some
large scale companies have begun to create strategic links with
smaller ones in order to broaden repertoire and reach, undertake
more new work and operate at a different scale. When successful,
such initiatives can offer benefits to both partners. The large
companies add value to their brands through association with more
"edgy" partners and by presenting themselves in new
environments; the smaller companies access greater resources and
support.
From this wealth of experience, there is broad
agreement that, however partnerships are structured, they are
challenging and a good deal of additional effort has to be invested
in planning and management to ensure equal benefits and the preservation
of companies' brands and individuality.
It may be that there is room for development
in such arrangements, not only in the form of co-productions of
varying kinds but in the larger companies nurturing smaller organizations,
although this should not be so as to secure funding for the large
organizations at the expense of directly funding the smaller ones.
The sector could be strengthened by improving
and developing existing networks and connections between different
elements such as supply networks; communication and the sharing
of information and audience data; the development of products
and audiences and the development and extension of talent and
skills.
Unfortunately to achieve these things, organizations
need time to look beyond their own organizations and the challenge
of putting on the next show. Companies are under-resourced and
overworked. At the present time the sector does not have the resources
to do very much more than achieve the immediate rather than consider
and collaborate on strategic objectives.
6. THE DISTRIBUTION
OF NATIONAL
LOTTERY FUNDS
The increase in the volume of investment in
the Arts by this means is obviously extremely welcome.
Given that Lottery funds are currently channeled
into Grants for the Arts the increase in the volume of money available
in this stream combined with a reduction in the amount of money
available via Grant in Aid for regular funding could mean a change
in the proportion of short-term funding in relation to long term
funding. This might open up the possibilities for a wider range
of companies to be funded but if the project funds are only related
to single projects could also have a destabilizing effect on the
sector. Lottery funds related to longer-term developments would
improve the situation.
7. THE ROLE
OF BUSINESS
AND PHILANTHROPY
Business and philanthropic giving are already
part of the income streams of many small and mid-scale companies.
For some companies it plays a significant role in the make up
of their income but overall, but as has been fully described elsewhere,
these sources of giving cannot make up for loss of public funding.
Business giving has been falling recently and businesses cannot
commit to a long-term role in charitable giving any more than
they can reasonably commit to long-term dividend value policy.
Moreover this sort of patronage frequently comes with a price
tag which may affect the way a company operates or the kind of
work it does. The UK does not have a culture of philanthropic
giving such as exists in the USA and it would arguably take time
to develop, even if the tax benefits were practical and available.
Business and private giving is inherently unstable and dependent
upon strong economies and in the short term at least there will
be greater competition for every sort of commercial and private
giving.
As indicated above, the small and mid-scale
organizations, especially those in the regions, new companies
and those undertaking the more experimental work are most likely
to have difficulty attracting these sorts of funds and any government
incentives to encourage individual (and business) is to be welcomed.
8. THE IMPACT
OF RECENT
CHANGES TO
DCMS ARM'S
-LENGTH BODIES
The proposed changes announced do not currently
affect the Arts Council, but it is worth saying that whilst there
are sums of public money to be distributed there is a need for
a body to undertake this informed by a strategic overview of the
sector. The Arts Council has received a good deal of criticism
in the last few years but it has undergone several major reorganizations
and there is little chance of a consistent overview and the formulation
and execution of effective long-term policies if there is the
constant need to plan for the next restructuring and downsizing.
August 2010
42 The Small and Middle Scale Opera and Music Theatre
Sector in England, July 2010, Graham Devlin Associates commissioned
by OMTF. Not yet published. Back
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