Arts & Business Dealt Massive Blow By Funding Cuts

Arts & Business, the body whose role is to encourage business into the arts, was dealt a massive financial blow today when it learnt this morning that the Arts Council England (ACE) is to cease any financial support by 2013 and that it will receive just £1.9 million for the coming financial year – a 50% cut on the £3.54 million it received this year.
Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of A& B, has responded by saying: This is an extraordinary and potentially very damaging decision for our cultural and commercial partners.  As John Whittingdale, Chair of the DCMS Select Committee, in his question to the Secretary of State in the House yesterday, asked - why is it that at the very time the cultural world is looking to work more closely with business and individuals, are attempts being made to dismantle the very body that carries the hopes of the private sector?
“To many of our private sector partners it will seem that our country has no strategy, no vision and no understanding of the needs of frontline arts fundraisers for an independent voice. At this time of economic recovery, instead of building on what has been learnt, our private sector partners believe that the Arts Council has dismantled our public realm work - to little purpose and with even less of a plan. In effect our work is to be nationalised by a quango. This decision does not fit comfortably with the Government’s vision of the Big Society.”
To read more comment on this story, please visit http://www.artsandbusiness.org.uk/News/2010/october/response-to-funding-decisions.aspx