Review will examine Yorkshire ATTL concerns

The selection process for the Artists Taking the Lead (ATTL) award in Yorkshire is to be subject to an internal review by Arts Council England (ACE). An ACE spokesperson told AP that “in the light of changes to our governance and funding processes since 2009” and “questions still being raised, and in the interest of openness and accountability”, ACE’s Chief Operating Officer Althea Efunshile will conduct a review and report back to Chief Executive Alan Davey by the end of November.
The announcement followed revelations of links between Leeds City Council and ACE Yorkshire in the run-up to the submission of bids for the ATTL award. Public sector bodies were ineligible for consideration for funding through the scheme, and ACE had claimed that none were involved in the bid by the winning consortium, Leeds Canvas. But Catherine Blanshard, Chair of Leeds City Council’s Cultural Olympiad task group, told AP that she had sounded out ACE Yorkshire on the likely reception to a bid by the arts consortium of which it was a member. And Andrew Macgill, who was then Head of Arts & Events at the Council, confirmed that he was co-author of the initial ‘expression of interest’ that was subsequently shortlisted by ACE and eventually won the competition. Blanshard has implicated three former senior Executives at ACE Yorkshire – “probably… either Andy Carver, Ivor Davis or Adrian Friedl” – as having discussed the potential bid with her, but they apparently failed to tell her that that Leeds City Council would be ineligible for funding through the scheme. A spokesperson for the City Council also confirmed that the Council had made it clear to ACE Yorkshire that it was involved in the bidding consortium that submitted the expression of interest.

Among the Yorkshire arts community there have been growing calls for the whole truth about the bidding process for ATTL to be revealed. Local artists will be meeting on 14 November in Leeds to consider their response to the recent revelations; and Dr Derek Horton, the former Head of Research in Contemporary Art at Leeds Metropolitan University – which was part of the Leeds Canvas consortium – has written to his local MP, Hilary Benn to ask for help for those who are “assiduously attempting to establish the truth about what are apparently scandalous abuses of power in the allocation of significant public resources”.

Following the City Council’s admission of involvement, ACE Regional Director for Yorkshire, Cluny Macpherson – who was himself a member of the selection panel for Yorkshire’s ATTL award – has requested that Yorkshire’s ATTL selection process be reviewed, even though ACE claims to be “confident that the selection process was robust”. No formal terms of reference are being set, but the review will look at “all the documentation from guidance to decision, to consider the concerns that have been raised and to advise on any lessons which might be learned for the future.” ACE will make the review findings available, together with any response, by the end of this year.

Clean Canvas Public Meeting