Did you know about the Arts Funding Cut 100%

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... and where it has happened .... to my shame i did not despite being a G reader ...


our friends in the north have now no arts funding at all in Newcastle ..... this it seems to me is a national tragedy and again emphasises how the inequality and its consequences are lost in the London whirl of narcissism and greed

[MrGongGong]

... and where it has happened .... to my shame i did not despite being a G reader ...


our friends in the north have now no arts funding at all in Newcastle ..... this it seems to me is a national tragedy and again emphasises how the inequality and its consequences are lost in the London whirl of narcissism and greed

Yes tis a great loss
and not the last i'm afraid

the blame lies fully on Clegg for facilitating dysfunctional behaviour

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's shocking. The North-South divide will continue to grow.

I'm a Host, so I can't say what I'm thinking.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

It's shocking. The North-South divide will continue to grow.

I'm a Host, so I can't say what I'm thinking.

never stopped me Eine A

[MrGongGong]

I'm a Host, so I can't say what I'm thinking.

Go on
let it out
it will do you good

as John Said (Lydon this time not Cage)

"Anger is an energy"

[amateur51]

The last time we had a Tory government exactly the same thing happened to the Arts and to the North-South divide, so be appalled certainly but don't be surprised.

The only difference this time is the banks are out of control and still likllely to be so even after Gideon's announcements on the new regulatory framework yesterday.

There was a chap on the Today programme this morning who was saying that there are only two places in the world which have adopted Gideon's structure for banking regulation, Netherlands and Australia, and it hasn't worked in either of these.

[MrGongGong]

There was a chap on the Today programme this morning who was saying that there are only two places in the world which have adopted Gideon's structure for banking regulation, Netherlands and Australia, and it hasn't worked in either of these.

The situation for music in The Netherlands is desperate as many will tell
(and not just my geek mates at STEIM )

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Go on
let it out
it will do you good

as John Said (Lydon this time not Cage)

"Anger is an energy"

True, but what I would like to say is quite unprintable.

[gingerjon]

... and where it has happened .... to my shame i did not despite being a G reader ...


our friends in the north have now no arts funding at all in Newcastle ..... this it seems to me is a national tragedy and again emphasises how the inequality and its consequences are lost in the London whirl of narcissism and greed

But it's alright because we'll bail ENO out, give Southbank Centre more money to refurbish around the festival hall again, and top up the building funds of the British Museum and Tate Modern.

There is obviously no money to support the arts.

[aeolium]

What is happening in Newcastle is awful, but it's not just a northern hardship story. Somerset County Council cut its arts funding by 100% in 2010 and Exeter's Northcott Theatre lost its arts council funding the following year. It is the regions which are suffering more keenly under local authority and arts council cutbacks. Perhaps they have always been, and always will be, the poor relations to London.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

..we went to London yesterday to attend a church sponsored concert [not that i am in any way a church person, just like to go to music events] ... i spent the first half of my life so far growing up there but was moved to say to swmbo on the train home that i would not mind never going back to London... [btw had to listen to another interminable conversation about the wrong tickets and you can't do that ££££££££££££ now please ... poor couple clobbered] .... now we are pensioners we can not, like millions of people, afford to pop on a train and go to town for an arts event ... [train cost £27 with senior card, refreshments etc {vital if only to pee!}, tube crowded out and back gave way so a taxi for £10 and then realised the crook driving it had short changed me] ... so rather out of pocket for a free event, worn out and frazzled and ripped off into the bargain ... we decided that we much prefer visiting Oxford, Birmingham and other local towns than London

the concert btw was excellent , fine young baritone singing last Brahms and Quilter's Shakespeare topped off with Flanders and Swan [check out the Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church for the rich future programme of recitals etc]

seems to me that we are being sent back to the 1890-1930 epoch, of poverty, elitism and rich foreigners without the option of going into service ... in fact the young musicians were working in pubs etc but completely bewildered about how they might earn a crust as artists, gain experience as artists and be valued as artists in this society ... and i am bewildered too

[Flosshilde]

What is happening in Newcastle is awful, but it's not just a northern hardship story. Somerset County Council cut its arts funding by 100% in 2010 and Exeter's Northcott Theatre lost its arts council funding the following year. It is the regions which are suffering more keenly under local authority and arts council cutbacks. Perhaps they have always been, and always will be, the poor relations to London.

Westminster City Council are also threatening to cut their arts budget. I know that it's tempting to think that it wouldn't matter in London, but it would affect small community groups & other organisations that aren't 'national'.

Cuts in council funding also affects funding from the Arts Council & other organisations. If council funds are cut by 100% the Arts Council will also probably pull out as they don't provide the sole or main funding, & if other organisations' funding is on a 'match funding' basis that will also disappear.

[aeolium]

Westminster City Council are also threatening to cut their arts budget. I know that it's tempting to think that it wouldn't matter in London, but it would affect small community groups & other organisations that aren't 'national'.

That's true enough, and I didn't intend to belittle the effect of local authority or Arts Council cuts on the smaller London organisations themselves. But the effect on the local community of such cuts is I suggest more serious and keenly felt in the regions than it is in London, where there is such a wide range of alternatives for audiences.

[Flosshilde]

Apart from thinking that for a lot of people in Westminster the better-known venues & arts organisations in London might be financially, if not physically, beyond their reach, I do agree with your general point about the imbalance of provision & opportunity between London/the SE & the rest of England.

Another thought - will the arts funding cuts apply to support for school visits to the theatre etc (where that exists), or does that come from the education budget?

[aeolium]

seems to me that we are being sent back to the 1890-1930 epoch, of poverty, elitism and rich foreigners without the option of going into service ... in fact the young musicians were working in pubs etc but completely bewildered about how they might earn a crust as artists, gain experience as artists and be valued as artists in this society ... and i am bewildered too

Yes, calum, and in a whole range of areas young people are simply being priced out of participation. House prices for instance have gone up 43-fold since 1971. Trains - unless you book ages in advance and know your way round the labyrinthine fare system - are too expensive for most of them to use. Pop concerts and sports events are increasingly pricey, and running a car is not cheap. (On the plus side, the cost of classical music CDs and downloads has never been cheaper, but that doesn't interest most young people).

Here is an embittered article about the new "age of entitlement". It is I suppose mostly off-topic but in a way not in that it touches on how we have come to where we are on the whole cuts agenda, including cuts in the arts.