I Will Survive

Following the publication of the ‘Arts in the firing line for Newcastle budget cuts’ piece in AP260, I wanted to clarify how funding cuts made by Newcastle City Council will affect NewcastleGateshead Initiative and the cultural activity we programme and deliver. I’d like to assure you and your readers that the delivery of our high-quality cultural programme will continue as planned. We have recently confirmed dates and are working on the delivery of our three major festivals in 2013 – EAT! NewcastleGateshead, Juice Festival for Children and Young People, and NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival.

Funding from Newcastle City Council represents just one of our many sources of income. The cut in funding we’ll see next year (2013/14) is equivalent to less than 5% of our annual budget and our funding model is a varied one. As a public-private partnership NewcastleGateshead Initiative is supported by 170 private sector businesses who financially contribute towards the work we deliver, and we continue to see success in attracting private sector sponsorship towards our festivals and events programme.

NewcastleGateshead Initiative will see a graduated reduction in funding from Newcastle City Council of 34% over the next three years, but they will still continue to support us and our wide-ranging remit to inspire people to visit and to live, learn, work and invest in NewcastleGateshead. Cultural activity will continue to have an important role and is a central part in all our work.

We will continue to work in close partnership with both Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Council, whilst also building on our success in securing private sector support to ensure we remain well placed to sustainably deliver our work into the future.