The BPo reported on the possibility of this happening yesterday with a few quotes hinting at the situation at Ex Cathedra and Performances Birmingham from people who work there.

My first boss always told me to work from first principles and sources, therefore:

• The Cabinet report is here (PDF); and
• The figures are here (Excel doc)

So, if you’re interested, have a look for yourselves.

If you’re in a rush

The cuts don’t quite match those suggested by that leaked document but they aren’t far off. The overall 17% cut for 2010/11 was right, at least.

Here are a few headlines:

• Performances Birmingham get a 23% cut
• Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Rep get an 18% cut
• Birmingham Opera Company,  Ikon, Dancexchange and Ex Cathedra get a 15% cut
• CBSO, The Drum and sampad get a 9% cut
• BCMG, Craftspace, Birmingham Jazz, Big Brum, Women & Theatre, Sound It Out, ACE Dance, Tindal Street Press, Stan’s Cafe, Fierce and RBSA will be funded for 6 months (‘transitional’ funding). After that they get nothing
• Capsule, Chitraleka, Friction Arts, The Playhouse, Punch, Vivid and Reel Access won’t be taken into the council’s portfolio of funded organisations (as was apparently planned before all this kicked off)
• There’s a project commissioning budget of about £250,000 which those smaller organisations (and others) can apply into

An observation – the project funding post has increased from £40,000 to £250,000. That increase would more than cover the funding taken away from those smaller organisations (£113,000 would do it).

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). I must admit I’m a bit fuzzy on how this is meant to work. Would be happy for any clarification.

If you want the really quick version

Dave Harte says: “Sounds like there was some retreat from Brum arts cuts as leaked but with an expected 6000% increase in need for bid writing.”

If you want some other views

• Birmingham Budget Cuts report on the cuts with bonus visualisation
• The Stage’s report
• The Birmingham Post’s report
• Audiences Central’s report on Council funding more generally
• The (comparatively) shiny happy version from the Council

If you’d rather see some cute photos of hedgehogs taking a bath

Then that would be completely understandable. Here you go.

Big caveat on this – I’ve not heard an official announcement about this (or even much speculation, to be honest – there’s been more focus on the Arts Council England and the UK Film Council). Who’s been informed of these figures and whether they’re 100% correct, I have no idea. That said, I’ve asked around a few people and the general gist of it seems to be correct.

The document says these figures are ‘recommended’. If I understand rightly, they’ll be put to a public cabinet meeting on 13 December. If anyone has any info on that then feel free to share it. Info might be at birmingham.gov.uk/democracy but, well…

If they are right it doesn’t look good, but then not much news coming out of the council is at the moment. Savings of £300k a day need to be made and 10,000 jobs are going.

I’m not going to go through that document an pull apart the figures but the comment box is below if you want to discuss things. Just be aware that I’d rather not have to moderate any potentially defamatory comments.

UPDATE

The Business Desk have done some digging and been told (if I’m reading this right) that the doc that’s doing the rounds may be an example of ‘scenario planning’. Which isn’t to say it’s necessarily right or wrong.

Related to that planning, Birmingham City Council have released their budget consultation with a proposed business plan (PDF) which includes:

• Considering a “trust” and new operating model for museums and review of commercial approach
• Reviewing support for arts organisations (additional to existing savings of £0.525m in 2011/12)

See the doc for figures. Comments are welcomed, the deadline is 17 January 2011.

Now, the good thing about writing this twelve hours after today’s announcement is that everyone else has summarised, pontificated and moved on. I can just link to what they’ve written. Blogging is ace. Anyway, onward…

Here’s the Arts Council’s announcement. Fair play to them for getting this out in reasonably good time following the spending review.

Audiences Central have summarised things and the Birmingham Post has calculated the cuts the region’s orgs are going to face from April 2011.

To skip through the announcement:

• Most regularly funded organisations will have their funding cut by 6.9% in 2011/2012
• By 2014/15 cuts will have risen to 14.9% in real terms (ie. ignoring inflation)
• Arts and Business and Creativity, Culture and Education will have their public funding halved next year and taken away completely the year after that. That’s very bad news for them
• The Arts Council will have to halve its admin costs
• There’ll be a new system for funding from 2012 onwards (arrangements to be announced 4 November 2010). Everyone will have to reapply – some existing orgs won’t be successful, some new ones will
• The budget for budget for ‘strategic opportunities for artistic work’ such as touring, large events and the Cultural Leadership Programme is being knocked down by 64%

Next year will be a ‘transition year’, hence the lower-than-expected cuts, the stay of execution for A&B and CCE and the Guardian describing arts groups as ‘relieved’. So expect things to get worse. Oh, and don’t forget the local authority funding that’s disappearing.

In A&B’s ‘defence’ Colin Tweedy has released an utterly unimpressive statement quoting an easily-swatted away question in Parliament and referring to the generalised views of unnamed ‘private sector partners’. Go get em, tiger.

Still, it’s not all bad news in the arts. Working at the top at the Royal Opera House can net you £630,000 a year.

Here’s the bunny vid:

These cuts will inevitably have a significant impact on the cultural life of the country

For local info on what’s happening, birminghambudgetcuts.blogspot.com might be worth keeping an eye on.

What do you make of it all?