Following a raft of controversial grant reductions for opera companies and a subsequent sector review, Andrew Stewart tries to unpick Arts Council England's strategy for the art form.
Arts Council England (ACE) appears determined to mark the hundredth anniversary of Franz Kafka’s death by upholding a series of maddening decisions about the future funding of opera.
The Prague-born writer, famed for his tales of profound human fears and insecurities, would have struggled to invent a scenario more bizarre than ACE’s strategy for the artform.
On the one hand, the national arts funding body is pressing the sector to broaden its reach, its relevance and the range of its ‘offer’; on the other, it has imposed draconian funding cuts on companies operating across the UK, often in places identified by the last government as priority areas for levelling-up investment. Those same cuts carry serious, career-defining, livelihood diminishing consequences for musicians... Keep reading on Musicians' Union.
Arts Council England (ACE) appears determined to mark the hundredth anniversary of Franz Kafka’s death by upholding a series of maddening decisions about the future funding of opera.
The Prague-born writer, famed for his tales of profound human fears and insecurities, would have struggled to invent a scenario more bizarre than ACE’s strategy for the artform.
On the one hand, the national arts funding body is pressing the sector to broaden its reach, its relevance and the range of its ‘offer’; on the other, it has imposed draconian funding cuts on companies operating across the UK, often in places identified by the last government as priority areas for levelling-up investment. Those same cuts carry serious, career-defining, livelihood diminishing consequences for musicians... Keep reading on Musicians' Union.