On a day that was all about securing funding for high performance arts organisations, with the promise that no broad, blanket formulas would be applied, England's big national organisations managed to hang on to much of their Arts Council subsidy. They all took hits, but most of these stayed within parameters that have been on the table for some months.
The biggest recipients of ACE money are based in the capital and are among our most internationally famous cultural institutions. The Royal Opera House gets £26,342,464 for 2011-12 but goes down in real terms by 15% to £26,430,676. The Southbank Centre takes a 15% knock but will still receive £20,709,928 for the next three years. The Royal National Theatre goes up to £18,352,522, though this is a real-terms drop of 14.9%. English National Opera, which has had a critically turbulent year, did slightly better, with a real-terms cut of 11%, going from £17,078,058 to £17,925,095.
Outside London, the other big beneficiaries are predictable enough. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) also gets a cut of 15% on its current funding of £16,414,895, going up to 16,466,778. Opera North goes up from £10,060,274 to £10,092,692, another real drop of 15%.
Tony Hall, chief executive of the Royal Opera House, said he felt it fair that the leading organisations should take cuts to allow others to flourish. "Alan Davey has come up with some wise judgments," he added, and this was the flavour of the comments from most of the larger, luckier organisations.
Michael Boyd, the artistic director of the RSC, expressed understanding for the ACE's invidious choices, but concern for those left out in the cold: "As we start to hear the news from across the arts world today, it's clear the consequences of the cuts will be far-reaching for many people and places. ACE has faced an impossibly difficult task in rebalancing its grants after a 29.6% cut in government funding, but I know they have tried hard to be strategic and our experience of the application process was that it was fair and open.
"My real concern is for those organisations who have been cut completely, and those who also face local authority cuts too. The pace of change will be hard for many to take and philanthropy for revenue funding cannot move that swiftly."
Though London took the lion's share, there were big-name losers. The Almeida was not alone among the London organisations with a substantial reputation to take a heavy cut. Well-known groups such as dance troupe the Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs, Out of Joint (which has a funding decrease of 27.9%), the Hackney Empire, the Hampstead theatre and Headlong are knocked with cuts of at least 11%, more painful for small companies.
The established orchestras – the Sinfonietta, the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic and the Philharmonia – all lost out to the tune of 11%.
As the government attempts to prompt the richest in the land to donate to the arts, it was interesting to see that the organisation set up to promote philanthropy has been dropped completely from the Arts Council agenda. Arts and Business lost its funding.
Colin Tweedy, its chief executive, said: "Arts and Business took a lonely and unpopular stand on the need for the arts and cultural community to play its part in the cuts that had to be borne to ensure our economy is secure. However, the cuts in reality are taking a genuine toll on much of what we value in this country and the cuts in the arts and culture budgets announced today are deeply distressing."
