A select gathering

It was standing room only earlier this month at the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee investigating Funding of the Arts and Heritage. Alan Davey, Chief Executive of Arts Council England (ACE), Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of Arts & Business (A&B), and Louise de Winter, Director of the National Campaign for the Arts, were all giving evidence. Davey was given a rough ride, accused of “quite breathtaking examples of waste”, and asked if he would like to apologise to local residents for the £32m spent on The Public, the controversial West Bromwich arts centre which could close next year if ACE withdraws its £1m a year revenue funding. He was further criticised for spending an “astonishing” £671k on diversity officers and £116k on internal redecoration at ACE’s office in London – including £13,500 for a “colour consultant”. Louise de Winter told the Committee that although the 0.5% cut announced in June was more or less understood and accepted by the sector, there were concerns about the depth and speed of further cuts. She pointed out that “organisations at the local level who get money from local authorities potentially could face up to 100% cuts, depending on how local authorities decide to use those budgets available to them”. Somerset County Council’s Cabinet has already made a budget proposal to stop all funding for the arts in Somerset from 2011/12 although no final decision has been taken. Colin Tweedy was vocal about the value of A&B, claiming that there is “huge growth potential in the private sector”, which could be dashed if A&B lost some or all of its money. But Davey hit back, telling Tweedy it is “terribly unfair… to plead your cause so publicly”, and told the Committee that some organisations could lose their entire grant: “We need to make strategic decisions as to which are the best organisations to fund and which organisations we can no longer afford, so they’re going to be really hard and, yes, we are going to be unpopular”. He promised that “our aim in looking at our systems is to simplify, simplify, simplify, and to get rid of questions and processes that aren’t necessary”, in order to protect arts organisations as far as possible.