Arts Council funding - London's winners and losers

Arts Council funding - London's winners and losers

30 March, 2011
by: Spoonfed Arts Team

London's winners and losers in today's Arts Council funding announcements.

After a night of worry and sleeplessness for arts institutions across London and the rest of the UK and a day of frantically sifting through all the announcements to bring you up-to-date news of the Arts Council's funding decisions, it's time to take a step back and see what's actually happened.

One point that seems to have been overlooked by many commentators is that Arts Council funding is not some kind of reward for doing good work, nor is taking it away a kind of punishment – although it may feel like that to some. Surely if a company can carry on perfectly well without taxpayers' money, then the funds are better directed elsewhere?

As Spoonfed is a London-based website, our focus is naturally on the capital's arts organisations, and in general it looks like the news is pretty positive. The worry is that the arts in what is being referred to rather patronisingly as 'the regions' will suffer. Nonetheless, here's our guide to the Arts Council's major winners and losers across London.

Up
Stratford Circus Limited +555%
This seems to have gone relatively under the radar, but these guys – who put on contemporary performing arts – have had a whopping 554.8% increase in funding. It's the most obvious example of ACE's commitment (bias?) to supporting arts in the Olympic boroughs.

Punchdrunk +141%
We love experimental theatre group Punchdrunk, so it's great to see them getting rewarded with a hefty funding rise.

Barbican +108%
The Barbican has received a pretty massive increase, "allowing it to work across all the Olympic boroughs". Now as much as we love the Barbican, this sounds a bit strange to us.

Others...
South London Gallery +107%, Arcola Theatre +82%, Resonance FM +65%, University of the Arts London +40%, Serpentine Gallery +20%, Art Monthly +10%, Artangel +31%, Camden Arts Centre +15.6%, Whitechapel Gallery +14%


Down
Watermans -60%
We have to admit we'd never even heard of Watermans, but according to their site their focus is on “forging strong relationships with centres of creative excellence from South Asia and commissioning internationally recognised digital media installations”.

Rich Mix -59%
The Bethnal Green New Labour institution is seeing its £700,000 worth of ACE funding cut dramatically. Time to raise the prices in the cafeteria?

ICA -42%
Just as they got rid of Ekow Eshun and Alan Yentob and looked to be doing some interesting stuff again – the forthcoming Pablo Bronstein show looks wicked – the ICA has been hit hard. Good luck to new director, Gregor Muir.

Others...
Almeida -39%, The Otolith Group -31%, Soho Theatre -17.6%, English National Ballet -15%, Southbank Centre -15%, Royal Opera House -15%, National Theatre -15%, Wigmore Hall -15%


We're also going to be running a series of hard-hitting opinion pieces in the coming days, so keep your eyes open.

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Spoonfed Arts Team