Comments on: Recommended BCC arts cuts (possibly)

By: Catherine Edwards

Catherine Edwards — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:57:33 +0000

Youch. Looks like Somerset’s opened the floodgates…

By: janice connolly

janice connolly — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:43:21 +0000

Some small battle won in that there is now transitional funding being granted to organisations previously in reciept of annual support from BCC . Better than the £0 that Somerset and other places have had to bear . This I feel was as a result of action being taken in terms of us all getting together . Thanks to Martin for hosting the meeting .
Lets keep on meeting , talking and protecting the arts in these harsh times .

By: Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:41:11 +0000

All this is ideologically driven. Its the Tory ( LibDem poodles dream) push the clock back 50 years and retain elite culture for the elite and to hell with every body else. You won’t read it in our compliant media but this is a fabricated crisis, research by PCS union and Tax Justice Campaign shows £120 billion a year is avoided and evaded in tax by banks and big business. If that was collected there would be no crisis. The deficit after WW11 was 5 times what it is now and yet the Labour Government of the time was able to establish the NHS and develop a massive council house building programme. Artists need to take a leaf out of the students book and get angry and start getting out on the streets.

By: Deirdre Figueiredo

Deirdre Figueiredo — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:54:43 +0000

@martin mullaney I’m really familiar with ACE plans going forward, I just think a cultural strategy that empowers artists to shape the city and its offer through their work and ideas will benefit citizens because people will want to come and live/work/play here and that can only be good for everyone in birmingham. Anyway, whatever happens, appreciate and welcome your personal willingness to engage in debate and discussion. Let’s keep it going and find mutually beneficial ways to ensure the arts and artists thrive into the future.

By: Stuart Lane

Stuart Lane — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:51:18 +0000

There are a number of companies that don’t receive a bean of funding from Birmingham City Council and consequently remain invisible to the arts team unless they scream and shout. Rather than seeing this as all negative perhaps this will give those companies who not only manage to survive but also thrive using a more traditional business model a chance to demonstrate how the arts can be both commercially viable and creatively dynamic. Maybe the citys arts orgs need a bit of a shake up. Just a thought.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:35:31 +0000

Martin,
You also have to understand why small organisations are so angry about these decisions, after spending valuable time writing hefty bureaucratic RFO applications (60 pages) for up to 10k which the BCC arts team have not responded to in a formal way but rather we see a leaked document informing us of 0 funding. It’s not very respectful or professional in terms of valuing our time to put in for this funding. I certainly hope that with the new pot for project funding a less bureaucratic system will be in place. There needs to be a huge shift in terms of value, we should be working together to make Birmingham a more vibrant cultural city, not being bogged down in paperwork.

By: Dave Harte

Dave Harte — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:38:34 +0000

The report that goes to cabinet about the decision to reorganise Arts funding is here (PDF):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2865380/BCCArtsCommissioning.pdf

By: Clayton

Clayton — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:53:05 +0000

With all these cuts, could the city council consider withdrawing on pursuing what now seems to be a rather frivolous advertising campaign next year that is going to cost £100k from city council budgets alone, not to mention the additional money from Marketing Birmingham and match funding requests from arts organisations?

Surely the money allocated from the city council (and possible Marketing Birmingham) could be redirected into the revenue budget to support the smaller organisations. What is the point in running a high cost national advertising campaign that will only end up demonstrating the city’s reduced commitment and support to the arts in Birmingham during these times of austerity?

By: kat

kat — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:03:42 +0000

I wonder when the decision was taken that “the production of experimental,diverse and innovative work” is of no benefit to the residents of Birmingham.

1) increasing public participation in the arts in the most deprived areas of Birmingham
2) increasing youth participation in the arts.
3) raising the profile of Birmingham as a cultural destination.

What’s missing for me here is any mention of ‘quality’, there is no reason why diverse, artistically excellent, innovative, experimental work cannot feed into all three of there areas.

Project funding can be positive for some small organisations who wish to choose how and when they engage with BCC. However, one of the ongoing problems for project-funded and small-scale organisations is continuity, not just for the organisation itself, but the people they work with – who are the people of Birmingham, the young and those in areas of social and economic deprivation. The following cycle will be familiar to many of us:

a) A fantastic idea, usually developed in consultation with people of Birmingham or arising from a recognised need. Together designing an artistic project which is responsive, engaging, raises aspiration, and fulfills aims 1 & 2 (maybe 3, depending on scale)

b) Fundraising – if successful, raise several thousand from various project pots/trusts which will see you through the project

c) Deliver a fantastic project which is responsive, engaging, raises aspiration, and fulfills aims 1 & 2 (maybe 3, depending on scale). The company will have built a great, trusting yet embryonic relationship with a group of people of Birmingham who have had a new experience and are hungry for more but perhaps not yet ready to go it alone.

d) Project ends, time for evaluation. Boxes ticked for BCC, people have engaged, people have participated. However the people/community you’ve worked with want to know what’s next, where do we go from here, where else can they go with their newly awakened aspirations? How does it make them feel that the company can only work with them ‘as long as the money lasts’? Company awaits funding decision for next project pot. With no core funding, they don’t even know if they themselves will be there in a few months to deliver another project.

Real instrumental changes in the way people in deprived areas and young people engage in the arts in Birmingham cannot realistically be achieved on a purely project-funded basis. The large venues cannot achieve these aims alone despite the Arts Champions scheme. The best organisations to really engage deeply with people are the small ones on the ground. My concern is that removing long-term stability from these organisations substantially damages their capability to bring about aims 1, 2, and 3. Individual projects will happen, which will be fantastic, but a stop-start approach and increasing competition for funds between companies will not in the long term grow the sector, grow engagement, grow creativity in the City, or grow the aspirations of the people of Birmingham.

By: Pippa

Pippa — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:59:37 +0000

I think it would be fair to say that the larger organisations keeping their funding, have a main focus that would fall under the third strand listed above more that the first two. While I agree that it’s fanastic to see young people from the streets of Birmingham involved with BRB and similar – if we’re very honest they’re the exception not the rule….

whereas the bulk of the organastions being cut have a main focus that lies in the first two areas – where nearly every project delivered is with and for people in Birmingham – in targetted areas that need the work….as a rule – and not the exception….

It feels a little unbalanced…. The way the cuts have been outlined would inicate clearly the city’s priority is the third strand – raising the profile of Birmingham as a cultural destination.