Greenroom to lose ACE funding
Article published: Thursday, April 7th 2011
Last Wednesday the Arts Council England (ACE) cut funding for 206 groups across the UK. Among the casualties is Manchester’s famous greenroom, a promoter of performance and live art for 28 years. Ian Pennington surveys a city’s arts scene left facing an uncertain future.
greenroom
Around £300,000 worth of funding will be lost from next year, despite increasing popularity for the arts venue. Greenroom Artistic Director Garfield Allen expressed his surprise, telling MULE, “There were no indications that our organisation would not receive further funding.” The impact this will have for the contemporary arts centre is as yet unclear, with Allen explaining how organisers were “taking some time to reflect on the implications of this news.”
“Financially greenroom, for the first time in its entire history, was doing very well: with increased ticket sales, increased commissioning and both good and solid partnership working,” he added.
Could this success have ironically worked against the venue, with ACE considering greenroom an organisation stable enough to cope without funding? When asked, Allen said there was a “bigger question” developing in Manchester’s arts world centred on the proposed new shared home for the Cornerhouse and Library Theatre.
Instead, Allen suggested these mainstream organisations were given funding to encourage their engagement with smaller groups, with greenroom in comparison dismissed as a “receiving house” only capable of hosting the plays of others. This comes in spite of the fact greenroom produce their own shows and have in the past supported the development of artists such as Steve Coogan and the award-winning dance company DV8.
He said: “I feel this strategy is flawed, because I don’t think that mainstream organisations have the skill or the structures to do this. Greenroom, as a small contemporary arts organisation, has over the last fourteen years dedicated time and focus in the development of emerging artists, by giving them their first opportunity to make work within a safe environment.”
Such a scenario is illustrated by the successful funding application by Manchester International Festival (MIF), awarded £1.5 million by the ACE to be staggered over the years between 2012 and 2015. This represents a steadier platform for MIF which, alongside its other public and private sponsorship, has previously only received a “special project fund” from ACE applied on a project to project basis.
Other groups experiencing significant cuts are the South Asian Visual Arts & Crafts charity Shisha, with £186,736 allocated for 2011/12 and nothing the year after, and Castlefield Gallery, which will receive no future financial support as a result of the ACE funding plan.
Castlefield Gallery also lost its ACE funding
Ian Hunter, a Director at the Lancashire-based Littoral Arts Trust, said it was a mistake to sever such organisations from ACE funding. Hunter, who has been working with Castlefield Gallery this year as part of the ‘Merzman’ performances celebrating the acclaimed 1930s artist Kurt Schwitters, said that “in Littoral’s view, ACE North West have really lost the plot in terms of their decision to axe Castlefield and Shisha. They are clearly out of their depth when it comes to understanding and responding to some the more critical and creative dynamics that constitute key cultural practices and challenges for the region.”
Some groups have escaped unscathed. Band On The Wall, the renovated venue that has collaborated with greenroom on recent music events, is another to have received “above and beyond its current funding”, according to a press release issued last week. In a short initial statement, CEO Gavin Sharp said, “This is wonderful news for Band On The Wall and confirmation that the hard work and ambitious vision of our business plan has been recognised in full.”
For local groups whose funding applications were unsuccessful – including Breaking Cycles, Xtrax Arts, All About Audiences, Urban Voice and Lime – Hunter offers some perspective and advice for survival: “We urge those artists and groups who were cut not to waste any of their creative time or energy in attacking or criticising the Arts Council.
“The much more exciting challenge and creative opportunity for artists and arts groups is now; how to begin to think of and plan for an alternative to the Arts Council.”
More: Election, Manchester
Comments
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One of the co-founders of Mute Magazine has written an interesting response to their loss of ACE funding and the wider implications of arts cuts everywhere – particularly for smaller and challenging projects: http://www.metamute.org/en/mute_100_per_cent_cut_by_ace
Comment by andyl on April 7, 2011 at 12:50 pm -
[…] year for example, a city-centre arts & performance centre (dance, theatre, etc) near to where I live in Manchester…, leading to subsequent closure. Rather than being an isolated case, this represented only 1 of 206 […]
Pingback by Can crowdfunding save the cash-strapped arts? | EtonDigital on May 31, 2012 at 11:15 am
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