Dunedin Consort

[PJPJ]

Not good news today:

Dunedin Consort statement

P

[DracoM]

Appalling news!!
An ensemble of considerable skill, inventiveness and integrity in their field.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Appalling news!!
An ensemble of considerable skill, inventiveness and integrity in their field.

[Thropplenoggin]

‘other organisations more fully met the strategic needs of the sector’.

I wonder if they also assessed the outcomes and impact of the Dunedin's work. How awful to see this deadening corporate language and, of course, weasel words, being applied to the Arts. Ah, patronage! Ah, humanity!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

‘other organisations more fully met the strategic needs of the sector’.

I wonder if they also assessed the outcomes and impact of the Dunedin's work. How awful to see this deadening corporate language and, of course, weasel words, being applied to the Arts. Ah, patronage! Ah, humanity!

- sickening phrase.

[doversoul1]

This is absolutely appalling. Dunedin Consort is one of the very best in the UK. This is tantamount to disregarding classical music as art.

[DracoM]

Can someone who has contacts in the Dunedin tell them the reactions on this thread?

[doversoul1]

Can someone who has contacts in the Dunedin tell them the reactions on this thread?

It looks as if they can be contacted directly.

https://www.dunedin-consort.org.uk/contact/

[vinteuil]

‘other organisations more fully met the strategic needs of the sector’.

I wonder if they also assessed the outcomes and impact of the Dunedin's work. How awful to see this deadening corporate language and, of course, weasel words, being applied to the Arts. Ah, patronage! Ah, humanity!

... it is so depressing. I know from bitter experience how hard it is for excellent early music set-ups to compete successfully when the funding bodies have a particular 'political' view as to the desired measurable benefits and impacts on particular socio-economic demographics.

[bluestateprommer]

There's an article by Brian Ferguson at The Scotland on this situation with multiple other Scottish arts groups:

https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/fury-as-fringe-and-theatre-companies-have-funding-axed-by-creative-scotland-1-4671604

I obviously operate in ignorance of the public funding or the arts situation of Scotland (and England, Wales and NI), so I don't really have a dog in this fight, so to speak. Obviously arts organizations operate, by their non-profit nature, under great financial stresses when it comes to chasing down funds. (FWIW, here, our idiot and borderline clinically insane Preznit wanted to eliminate totally the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities, but that didn't go over so well even with our dysfunctional, Republican-controlled Congress - for now.)

Can the Dunedin Consort try to pursue other options like private foundation funding, or crowd-funding, to some degree? Obviously £300,000 is a huge hit, where, to do back-of-the-envelope math, in the context of this part of the DC's statement that PJPJ linked to:

"Its funding currently accounts for 20% of our annual turnover...."

That implies that the DC's annual budget ("turnover") is £1,500,000. £300,000 is obviously not trivial, but if the DC wants to start a fundraiser challenge, there's the goal to go for. Again, I apologize for my ignorance of more details here, of the big picture.

[richardfinegold]

Someone told me that the word Caledonia, the Roman name for Scotland, means “land of really cheap people”.

[bluestateprommer]

The Dunedin Consort just had their £300K from Creative Scotland restored:

https://www.dunedin-consort.org.uk/news/creative-scotland-restores-regular-funding-dunedin-consort/

https://www.scotsman.com/regions/edinburgh-fife-lothians/creative-scotland-forced-into-funding-review-after-climbing-down-over-cuts-1-4684081

It's good news for them, but obviously still leaves some other groups (e.g. Hebrides Ensemble) dry. I wonder if it might have been better, or at least marginally more equitable, to give £150K each to the Dunedin Consort and to the Hebrides Ensemble.

[MrGongGong]

And the Sound festival ?
This smacks of incompetence to me on behalf of CS

Not good though when some groups get decisions reversed due to "special pleading", shades of the Wilding report fiasco in England
NOT that they shouldn't have got the money in the first place
BUT, if one only gets bad funding decisions reversed if one gets enough support from the public where does that leave small and newly formed organisations?

[DracoM]

Encouraging news in at least one sense!!