Bristol artists label funding delay ‘cruel and disrespectful’

Arts practitioners have branded the management of cultural funding by Bristol City Council as “farcical, cruel and disrespectful” after a year-long delay in grant administration has left some organisations facing severe financial difficulties.

Freelancers in the creative arts and representatives from Equity have also expressed frustration that the prolonged hiatus has gone largely unexplained by the council.

When Bristol's Cultural Investment Programme 2023-27 opened in spring 2022, applicants expected a verdict on their bids from the council in October of that year. Instead, after a series of delays, they were informed an independent committee would oversee the process, with decisions pushed back until March 2024.

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Following protests by Equity in June, the date for decisions was brought forward to December 2023. But after waiting 14 months, some organisations say their employees and the communities they serve are feeling the consequences of the prolonged funding gap. 

Bristol City Council (BCC) has said the delay arose because the original procedure for grant allocation by council staff was "not sufficiently transparent" so it had paused the process to "ensure that any decision on culture funding from public funds is made by a transparent, independent body."

One of the organisations affected by the delay is DragonBird Theatre, a Bristol-based company that runs participatory sessions and performances for children and adults.

Co-founder Lotte Nørgaard told Arts Professional that despite keeping its ticket costs low, audience numbers have dropped as a result of the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, making council funding more crucial to its survival.

Nørgaard said: “The impact [of the delay] means that we haven't been able to plan ahead. I can’t even tell my freelance colleague how long I can employ her. 

“The performers I work with are having to look for other work. Some are having to look for full-time work and that means I end up losing their expertise.”

Common decency

To continue offering an autumn programme,  Nørgaard has had to fundraise and restrict where DragonBird performs. She said, “We work in local community spaces where people don’t need transport, but for our autumn season, we can only hire one space in a central location and hope people will be able to come.”

Until recently, Nørgaard felt DragonBird was valued by lawmakers in the city. She said, “I really felt like Bristol City Council was recognising and investing in a Bristol company that had worked hard to build up audiences and focus its work in Bristol."

“Then they put out the next round of funding, and we all put in bids, which are not easy to write for everyone. I needed help, which cost me money.

“But we keep being put off and being put off. If they needed to review the whole process of how they make the decisions around funding, that really should have been done before they did the call out for everyone to apply. I think that's just common decency.”

'Massive oversight'

Emily Williams is Artistic Director of Theatre Bristol, which announced in July it would be closing after losing Arts Council England funding. However, Williams says delays to the Cultural Investment Programme by BCC, a core funder of the organisation for over a decade, also influenced Theatre Bristol’s closure.

Williams said, “In terms of the percentage we get from the council [it was] quite small, around 20%.

“But not being able to include BCC as a funder or a stakeholder in Theatre Bristol when looking at other funding sources felt like a real gap. We couldn’t show through their investment that they believe in supporting an organisation like ours that does the kind of work we will do.”

Williams said the process had been “confusing”, adding that it felt “incredibly disrespectful, particularly for those who have to bust a gut to write a funding application.”

Once installed, the independent committee will take existing bids written in spring 2022 to inform their decisions this winter. Williams noted, “For many organisations, the picture has completely changed in that time. It feels like a massive oversight.”

She added, “Arts and culture are used time and time again by the local government as a reason to live and work in Bristol, but there has been a complete lack of dialogue.

“The words that spring to mind are farcical, cruel and disrespectful.” 

Bills to pay

Gareth Forrest, Campaigns Officer for Equity, said he didn't think that the council appreciated the impact of the delay on freelance workers in the city's cultural sector.

He said: "Whatever discussions were happening internally at the local government level, the consequences are being felt by people that have nothing to do with that.  The applicant – our members – have got bills to pay. They've got people's wages to pay.

“The people who are funded by this programme, by and large, are all small community programmes. There's no leeway in their budgets. If they run out of money because of delays in the applications, then that's it, they have to close down their projects.”

The council has indicated that funds earmarked for the Cultural Investment Programme in 2022 are still available. But Forrest fears in light of local authorities struggling financially, with some being forced to declare bankruptcy, the money that has been set aside might be cut.

“It's a small amount, in terms of the council's overall budget, but arts are always the first to be cut,” he said.

Open and democratic discussion

Equity President Lynda Rooke, who lives in Bristol, told Arts Professional that BCC offered her a seat on the new independent panel but she declined as it would not be appropriate for the union to participate in decisions on funding of its members.

“Having lived in Bristol a very long time, I've seen cultural money being cut back and cut back over the years, and we are not talking vast sums of money to begin with either," she said.

"But the demands placed on the individuals applying for small amounts of money of £2,000 to £5,000 are quite considerable.

“We need an open and democratic discussion on the vision and strategy for cultural funding in cities. We're not asking to be the people who decide on it."

"We want clarity and transparency on all of this. We still don't understand why this is taking so long."

Bristol City Council said its original grant allocation procedure was "not sufficiently transparent". Photo: Claudio Divizia

Strengthened process

BCC said that it appreciated the pressure on “all organisations” in the city during the cost-of-living crisis, including in the cultural sector, but said the hiatus in the Cultural Investment Programme will “vitally ensure that any decision on culture funding from public funds is made by a transparent, independent body."

BCC said the original process was "not sufficiently transparent", adding that "full details of the new, strengthened process, which is led by independent external assessors, will be published in a council report when the decision is made".

A spokesperson for BCC said: “A strengthened, entirely independent process for awarding this funding has been designed, and the external panel has been appointed. Following a meeting with the Mayor’s Office, Equity was offered a place on this panel but declined to be involved.

“Once the workshops and assessment are completed, recommendations will come to December’s Cabinet meeting for consideration. Grant funding, which remains earmarked in the council’s budget, for successful organisations will be awarded in the New Year.”