The end of ENO?

[Master Jacques]

And those who try and sidestep the class aspect will invoke the irrelevance line - "it doesn't speak to the youth of today", "it has nothing to offer ordinary people", "people can't identify with it". It doesn't fool anyone(least of all the target demographic) and says a fair bit about the people spouting it - none of it good I reckon.

The loaded questionnaire I've just been sent, in response to my letter suggesting that Sir Serota ought to resign, is another example of how these people operate. "Do you agree with the Arts Council's plan to reallocate funds away from London?" (scale answer of 1 through 5) and "Do you agree with moving the emphasis away from music funding, in favour of social and/or educational projects?" (same scale) invite a series of responses intended to make one look a bigoted grouch if one's answers don't toe the official line. My goodness, this serpentine organisation needs a thorough shake-out!

[mopsus]

Is this questionnaire downloadable online anywhere? I can't be the only forum member who'd like to fill it in.

[Darkbloom]

Something that I was pondering earlier. Do art galleries and museums have to go through these weird contortions with funding organisations to stay in business? As far as I can tell, you can walk into the National Gallery or the British Museum and, although they have changed a bit over the years, they aren't required to fundamentally change what they are to stay 'relevant'. For some reason, music is deemed a special case and it always has to justify itself or face the axe.

[Master Jacques]

Is this questionnaire downloadable online anywhere? I can't be the only forum member who'd like to fill it in.

I'm not sure, mopsus. I tried to pursue that, before posting about it; but the URL seems to have been tailored to my individual use, as a response to my letter, so providing that may not be any use.

It is certainly curious to ask for public input, after the deed is done. Looks to me as if they're preparing to say "... and we've had thousands of responses that agree with what we're doing".

[Serial_Apologist]

The loaded questionnaire I've just been sent, in response to my letter suggesting that Sir Serota ought to resign, is another example of how these people operate. "Do you agree with the Arts Council's plan to reallocate funds away from London?" (scale answer of 1 through 5) and "Do you agree with moving the emphasis away from music funding, in favour of social and/or educational projects?" (same scale) invite a series of responses intended to make one look a bigoted grouch if one's answers don't toe the official line. My goodness, this serpentine organisation needs a thorough shake-out!

Because it's the how, rather than the fact of relocation or re-allocation that is so often questionable, the framing of such questions deliberately puts the responder in a double-bind catch 22 of apparently dismissing proposals carte blanche, which would not be the case were the questions devised in more nuauced ways. But this is deliberate: the organisation can then say it has done its consultation exercise as promised, and here are the results.

[Nick Armstrong]

Because it's the how, rather than the fact of relocation or re-allocation that is so often questionable, the framing of such questions deliberately puts the responder in a double-bind catch 22 of apparently dismissing proposals carte blanche, which would not be the case were the questions devised in more nuauced ways. But this is deliberate: the organisation can then say it has done its consultation exercise as promised, and here are the results.

Agreed - verging on the “Have you stopped beating your wife, yes or no?” model…

[Dave2002]

Or Dorothy Parker’s variant involving ‘culture’…

Shouldn't that be in Weeder's Digest?

[oddoneout]

Something that I was pondering earlier. Do art galleries and museums have to go through these weird contortions with funding organisations to stay in business? As far as I can tell, you can walk into the National Gallery or the British Museum and, although they have changed a bit over the years, they aren't required to fundamentally change what they are to stay 'relevant'. For some reason, music is deemed a special case and it always has to justify itself or face the axe.

The simple answer is "yes". The fact that what you see on "the shop floor" doesn't seem different is because there is a great deal that goes on behind the scenes which you wouldn't likely see or have reason to know about. Activities involving specific groups may be at times or in areas away from the public areas., and outreach by definition tends to be offsite. Family and school activities may be part of that work but are often seen in the normal course of events so again you wouldn't know if they were "tickbox" or "regular"; that group of young people going round with clipboards or having discussions in a gallery might be on a regular 6th Form/college visit, or they might be doing research for an exhibition on disability to be staged on that site as part of a wider equalities project run by that gallery or museum.
If physical changes such as major stripping out and re-staging permanent displays require grant funding (whether ACE, Lottery Fund or whatever) then there will be hoops to go through showing how particular tickboxes will be filled in order to be considered for funding, but again you wouldn't have reason to see that in the end product. Nor might you be aware if funding has not been forthcoming - it will depend on the extent to which such funding keeps a given place afloat. The organisation I work in accesses lots of different types of grant funding, some for specific projects and some, such as the ACE National Portfolio designation for longer term support. The ACE funding is never taken for granted and there is always a Plan B; this year, for various reasons, that would have been something of a worst case scenario/disaster recovery but at least it was thought about and planned for. Thankfully it hasn't had to be implemented.
The likes of music suffer from being ephemeral and intangible I think; giving someone a life-enhancing(possibly life-changing) experience by attending a concert or similar is not seen as being just as important as a gender issues workshop or decolonialisation (that was colonic first time round...) of a gallery display. As such the ephemeral arts and all who work in such fields are seen as, at best capable of instant reform and reworking to suit a current agenda or, at worst, dispensable, in today's "cost of everything value of nothing" world.

[teamsaint]

The loaded questionnaire I've just been sent, in response to my letter suggesting that Sir Serota ought to resign, is another example of how these people operate. "Do you agree with the Arts Council's plan to reallocate funds away from London?" (scale answer of 1 through 5) and "Do you agree with moving the emphasis away from music funding, in favour of social and/or educational projects?" (same scale) invite a series of responses intended to make one look a bigoted grouch if one's answers don't toe the official line. My goodness, this serpentine organisation needs a thorough shake-out!

Loaded questionnaires reached new heights of absurdity over the last couple of years.Some around covid issues didn’t allow anything other than a confirmation of the required response, just milder or stronger.
All paid for by the tax payer. The lessons have clearly been well learned by the arts funders.

[Dave2002]

Loaded questionnaires reached new heights of absurdity over the last couple of years.Some around covid issues didn’t allow anything other than a confirmation of the required response, just milder or stronger.
All paid for by the tax payer. The lessons have clearly been well learned by the arts funders.

The results of most of. these questionnaire surveys are often known in advance, irrespective of whether "you" fill them in "correctly" or not!

Does that remind you of somewhere else?

[Old Grumpy]

The results of most of. these questionnaire surveys are often known in advance, irrespective of whether "you" fill them in "correctly" or not!

Does that remind you of somewhere else?

Yes. Northumberland in the early noughties. They had a very good 3 tier school system which suited the rural communities well. Northumberland County Council wanted to introduce the standard Primary/Secondary system and constructed a questionnaire to the populace. There was no option in the requests to reply the 3 tier system suits us and our children very well thankyou - leave it alone!

[Dave2002]

Yes. Northumberland in the early noughties. They had a very good 3 tier school system which suited the rural communities well. Northumberland County Council wanted to introduce the standard Primary/Secondary system and constructed a questionnaire to the populace. There was no option in the requests to reply the 3 tier system suits us and our children very well thankyou - leave it alone!

EVen if there had been, and everyone had answered that way, the outcome would very likely have been the same. Then you (or your representatives) would have received a letter/message - "thank you for supporting us in our proposals".

[oddoneout]

I've just come across this while following up a Guardian article about the current ACE funding round. The article is from 2016

Publicly subsidised arts organisations were told two years ago that diversity had to be a central part of their operations, in terms of audience and workforce, or they would face having their funding axed.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/number-of-minority-arts-workers-must-improve-arts-council-england

Incidentally I thought the dignified response from Britten Sinfonia quoted here https://www.theguardian.com/culture/...nding-verdicts was noteworthy. I wonder how the discussions with ACE have gone. Meurig Bowen says there were no prior red flags which seems odd to me; if BS is falling short on something ACE consider important then isn't that part of the feedback and monitoring process which surely takes place with such grants? It might not change the outcome but forewarned is forearmed and helps with planning.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I've just come across this while following up a Guardian article about the current ACE funding round. The article is from 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/number-of-minority-arts-workers-must-improve-arts-council-england

Incidentally I thought the dignified response from Britten Sinfonia quoted here https://www.theguardian.com/culture/...nding-verdicts was noteworthy. I wonder how the discussions with ACE have gone. Meurig Bowen says there were no prior red flags which seems odd to me; if BS is falling short on something ACE consider important then isn't that part of the feedback and monitoring process which surely takes place with such grants? It might not change the outcome but forewarned is forearmed and helps with planning.

Cambridgeshire is significantly less ethnically diverse than the England average and Suffolk even more so which must make it a real problem to attract a diverse concert audience. I’m quite a frequent Met opera cinema goer. I noticed at the last relay I went to the stalls were almost entirely white and this is in one the most diverse cities on earth. The only visible ethnic minorities were in the orchestra, the chorus , one or two principals and one of the ushers . If funding is to follow audience diversity then classical music organisations face big challenges . Back in the early noughties I worked with a local tertiary education college to fund diversity bursaries as I noticed most of our potential employees were being trained there. It took years for that to have any impact.

[ChandlersFord]

Cambridgeshire is significantly less ethnically diverse than the England average and Suffolk even more so which must make it a real problem to attract a diverse concert audience. I’m quite a frequent Met opera cinema goer. I noticed at the last relay I went to the stalls were almost entirely white and this is in one the most diverse cities on earth. The only visible ethnic minorities were in the orchestra, the chorus , one or two principals and one of the ushers . If funding is to follow audience diversity then classical music organisations face big challenges . Back in the early noughties I worked with a local tertiary education college to fund diversity bursaries as I noticed most of our potential employees were being trained there. It took years for that to have any impact.

I'm not sure diversity is at all natural, or even desirable in certain instances.

Why should someone of black/African heritage take an interest in music from outside their own culture? I listen to music from outside my own culture but I'll admit, it usually makes me feel like a tourist and I'll admit to being at sea when called on to judge the musical quality of Opera North's recent Orpheus.

Great if diverse audiences do attend opera productions and classical concerts, but I think it's a lost cause trying to 'make this happen.'