The Birmingham Post has a pretty grim report on the latest Birmingham City Council arts funding decisions. You may remember that a significant chunk was taken away this time last year. Well, the current level of funding will be frozen for a couple of years, with plans to take away a further £1.4m in 2014.
In response to that, mac have said they might have to close for 6 weeks from January 2013, reduce their operating hours and feature less adventurous work.
The Music Hub organisations (Symphony Hall, the Town Hall, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Ex Cathedra) are apparently being accused of not getting their act together sufficiently and have been told they can just have one year of funding for the time being.
So, yes. Grim. The Post goes so far as to use the phrase ‘plunged into crisis’.
I’d like to quote something I wrote a year ago:
The leaked figures suggested a rather bleak scenario of 2012/13 and 2013/14 – one that’s been described as ‘politically unacceptable’. The idea, as I understand it, is for the figures announced yesterday to hold for the next three years. Funding is to be kept at this level by income generated by (for example) sponsorship secured by the likes of Performances Birmingham (Town Hall/Symphony Hall to you and I)
Is the scenario any less bleak or, for that matter, politically acceptable? The attempts to sell naming rights for the Town Hall and Symphony Hall have apparently fallen through too, by the way – corporate cash being a bit more tricky to come by these days.
One last thing – it’s worth noting that the Birmingham Post article was written by Paul Dale who left the paper yesterday. Over the years he’s done more than his fair share of bothering people in power and I’ve enjoyed reading his work. I was gutted to see him go (I bet there are a few who feel relieved) and wish him all the best in whatever he does next.
Honestly! I’m repeating myself, so feel free to tune out, but the City Council are quite happy to brag about Birmingham’s arts offer but in order to continue to be able to do that they need to continue to put the cash in.
Frankly, there aren’t many good reasons for living in this City, a vibrant arts scene is one of them, but let’s not worry about that, let’s save ourselves a few quid.