Arts Council Funding Cuts

**french frank** · 09-05-23, 06:25

ENO have announced a shortlist of cities where they may base themselves - Birmingham, Bristol, Greater Manchester, Liverpool Nottingham

English National Opera names five cities on relocation shortlist

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65497596

The opera company was told by Arts Council England to leave the capital or lose its public funding.

(I also couldn't find the original thread. Inadequate search facility won't accept ENO as the key word because it's too short. Anyone remember more of the title? Or who started it?)

**Bryn** · 09-05-23, 07:22

Googling "radio 3 forum" and "ENO" as the two search criteria finds http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...f-ENO&p=902991 as its first hit. The same approach to searching often finds things on the BBC site more easily than does the BBC's inadequate search 'facility'.

**oddoneout** · 09-05-23, 07:28

Originally posted by french frank View Post

ENO have announced a shortlist of cities where they may base themselves - Birmingham, Bristol, Greater Manchester, Liverpool Nottingham

English National Opera names five cities on relocation shortlist

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65497596

The opera company was told by Arts Council England to leave the capital or lose its public funding.

(I also couldn't find the original thread. Inadequate search facility won't accept ENO as the key word because it's too short. Anyone remember more of the title? Or who started it?)

Glad I'm not the only one! I did find it eventually by looking through my post history but fortunately Bryn got there with a link first - I haven't sussed out how to do that, or have forgotten if I ever knew. In any case I reckoned that my post wasn't completely misplaced since it related to Arts Council cuts.

**french frank** · 09-05-23, 07:55

Originally posted by oddoneout View Post

Glad I'm not the only one! I did find it eventually by looking through my post history but fortunately Bryn got there with a link first - I haven't sussed out how to do that, or have forgotten if I ever knew. In any case I reckoned that my post wasn't completely misplaced since it related to Arts Council cuts.

Yes, good tip from Bryn. I just googled FoR3 ENO and it was the top hit with other forum suggestions. Maybe I'll post what I was going to say on The End of ENO?.

**Old Grumpy** · 09-05-23, 08:28

Originally posted by Bryn View Post

Googling "radio 3 forum" and "ENO" as the two search criteria finds http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...f-ENO&p=902991 as its first hit. The same approach to searching often finds things on the BBC site more easily than does the BBC's inadequate search 'facility'.

BBC's inadequate search facility?????...

...New Radio 3 Forum search facility in this case, surely?

**Bryn** · 09-05-23, 08:38

Originally posted by Old Grumpy View Post

BBC's inadequate search facility?????...

...New Radio 3 Forum search facility in this case, surely?

My point is that Using Google (or Duck Duck Go) is a more reliable search method than using the BBC's own search engine, as is also often the case when searching this forum.

**french frank** · 09-05-23, 08:39

Originally posted by Old Grumpy View Post

BBC's inadequate search facility?????...

...New Radio 3 Forum search facility in this case, surely?

I don't think the forum can do anything about it

**french frank** · 17-05-23, 12:12

Slightly better news from WNO this morning. They report a very successful performance for the orchestra at the Prague Spring international festival:

"The programme is always Smetana’s Má vlast (the Czech national work) and the honour to perform this has only ever been given to the likes of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra. We are certainly the first ‘opera’ orchestra to have been invited. Among the audience were the President of the Czech Republic [King Charles], the Prime Minister [Rishi Sunak], the Minister of Industry [Nusrat Ghani?], the Mayor of Prague [Sadiq Khan] and many more dignitaries." NB The interpolations are my own.

More to the point here:

"Since the 35% cut in our funding from Arts Council of England last November, we have been, quietly, working with ACE to improve our situation. We have been awarded the largest sum of any applicant from their ‘Transform’ fund (£3,250,000 over two years). This will mean that the cut over the next three years is manageable, giving us time to re-configure and, hopefully, generate more funds from 2026 onwards.

We have also, quietly, managed to reverse the ACE decision that we should withdraw from our touring to Birmingham. This is very important to us as we see Birmingham, the second city of England, as a prestige venue and one which offers us greater opportunities than elsewhere. We have also, quietly, gained agreement with ACE that we can continue our prolific engagement work in the West Midlands if we can generate more funding to do so. This is also extremely important to us as we have a full-time producer in post who we would be very reluctant to lose."

Still a struggle ahead, but good news is better than bad.

**vinteuil** · 17-05-23, 12:16

.

... I think Nicholas Hytner has a point - at the moment ACE is trying to do two very different things - 'high' arts, and 'social work' arts. And perhaps these need two separate streams -

The arts in Britain are teetering on the brink. Here is my plan to save them | Nicholas Hytner

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/17/arts-council-britain-plan-save-new-body

The Arts Council should focus on high-quality performances while a new body deals with community-based initiatives, says Nicholas Hytner, former artistic director at the National Theatre

.

**Ein Heldenleben** · 17-05-23, 12:29

Originally posted by french frank View Post

Slightly better news from WNO this morning. They report a very successful performance for the orchestra at the Prague Spring international festival:

"The programme is always Smetana’s Má vlast (the Czech national work) and the honour to perform this has only ever been given to the likes of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra. We are certainly the first ‘opera’ orchestra to have been invited. Among the audience were the President of the Czech Republic [King Charles], the Prime Minister [Rishi Sunak], the Minister of Industry [Nusrat Ghani?], the Mayor of Prague [Sadiq Khan] and many more dignitaries." NB The interpolations are my own.

More to the point here:

"Since the 35% cut in our funding from Arts Council of England last November, we have been, quietly, working with ACE to improve our situation. We have been awarded the largest sum of any applicant from their ‘Transform’ fund (£3,250,000 over two years). This will mean that the cut over the next three years is manageable, giving us time to re-configure and, hopefully, generate more funds from 2026 onwards.

We have also, quietly, managed to reverse the ACE decision that we should withdraw from our touring to Birmingham. This is very important to us as we see Birmingham, the second city of England, as a prestige venue and one which offers us greater opportunities than elsewhere. We have also, quietly, gained agreement with ACE that we can continue our prolific engagement work in the West Midlands if we can generate more funding to do so. This is also extremely important to us as we have a full-time producer in post who we would be very reluctant to lose."

Still a struggle ahead, but good news is better than bad.

In other good news their rather slim tour offering of The Magic Flute (only) seems to be selling very well. Sadly not to me though as the production looks terrible…

**french frank** · 17-05-23, 17:33

Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View Post

In other good news their rather slim tour offering of The Magic Flute (only) seems to be selling very well. Sadly not to me though as the production looks terrible…

I'm glad it's selling well too. But it's getting beyond me now to travel into the centre of town ("Bristol city centre named one of the 'most dangerous' places in England and Wales"), and then waiting for a bus there at 10.30ish (or even standing in a queue for a taxi). It would take one of the more esoteric productions (that Bristol never gets) to lure me in. I support them with a monthly donation which equates to half a dozen good seats a year.

**JasonPalmer** · 17-05-23, 17:39

News on in tune mentioned eno have to leave london by 2026 ... madness, tourists go to london and a major share of ticket sales

**bluestateprommer** · 06-06-23, 16:48

Leeds Lieder has just posted about the impact to them about the loss of ACE funding:

Blog post: https://leedslieder.org.uk/leeds-lie...angels-appeal/

Crowd-funding appeal: https://chuffed.org/project/leedsliederangels (I wonder about the "Elly Ameling" listed in the donor roster)

So much for "leveling up", huh?

The Britten Sinfonia fund-raising campaign in the wake of their loss of ACE funding may be old news, but just in case not:

HELP BRITTEN SINFONIA PLAY ON - Britten Sinfonia

https://www.brittensinfonia.com/support-us/play-on

A different kind of orchestra

Arts Council Funding Cuts

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