Created in Birmingham

The Birmingham Post has a pretty grim report on the latest Birmingham City Council arts funding decisions. You may remember that a significant chunk was taken away this time last year. Well, the current level of funding will be frozen for a couple of years, with plans to take away a further £1.4m in 2014.

In response to that, mac have said they might have to close for 6 weeks from January 2013, reduce their operating hours and feature less adventurous work.

The Music Hub organisations (Symphony Hall, the Town Hall, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Ex Cathedra) are apparently being accused of not getting their act together sufficiently and have been told they can just have one year of funding for the time being.

So, yes. Grim. The Post goes so far as to use the phrase ‘plunged into crisis’.

I’d like to quote something I wrote a year ago:

The leaked figures suggested a rather bleak scenario of 2012/13 and 2013/14 – one that’s been described as ‘politically unacceptable’. The idea, as I understand it, is for the figures announced yesterday to hold for the next three years. Funding is to be kept at this level by income generated by (for example) sponsorship secured by the likes of Performances Birmingham (Town Hall/Symphony Hall to you and I)

Is the scenario any less bleak or, for that matter, politically acceptable? The attempts to sell naming rights for the Town Hall and Symphony Hall have apparently fallen through too, by the way – corporate cash being a bit more tricky to come by these days.

One last thing – it’s worth noting that the Birmingham Post article was written by Paul Dale who left the paper yesterday. Over the years he’s done more than his fair share of bothering people in power and I’ve enjoyed reading his work. I was gutted to see him go (I bet there are a few who feel relieved) and wish him all the best in whatever he does next.

The Big Give Christmas Challenge kicked off this morning (after a false start yesterday when their servers crashed). It’s a big fundraising drive, with the bonus that donations are matched by a combination of Big Givers, so any money you give is doubled.

If you’re after something local:

• This link will take you to a list of West Mids culture/sport charities
• This link will take you to a search of charities that mention the keyword ‘Birmingham’
• Audiences Central has a list

AngelShares is a new crowdfunding service for the arts.

It was developed locally (founded by Sarah Gee of Indigo Ltd and built by Made Media) and launches with projects from Ikon Gallery, Craftspace, Light House Media Centre, Belgrade Theatre and Herbert Art Gallery & Museum.

The interesting thing about this one being that eligible donations can attract Gift Aid, adding a healthy chunk of extra cash to any projects that you choose to support.

AngelShares is on Twitter and on Facebook.

Via BCMG’s news section:

Birmingham City Council has launched a Public Consultation on its Budget Plans from April 2012. Please support the cultural life of the city by taking part in this. The official deadline for responses is 8 January, however we urge responses by the end of November, as they can then feed in to the Council Cabinet’s decisions on arts spending in early December

A public consultation might not be very exciting, but if you want this city to support culture and creativity then it wouldn’t hurt to mention that to the people who make the decisions – they’re not psychic, y’know.

A touch of grouchiness for a Monday morning.

Ammo reckons Birmingham’s arts scene is too safe and middle-aged, claiming that rather than providing art that appeals to Brummies, “a human tide of middle class professionals floods Birmingham each day from the suburban shanty towns that ring our city”:

Groomed by the local authority and a small elite of ‘tastemakers’, half-a-dozen ‘flagship’ venues and ventures in the city centre now hoover up most of the taxpayer and corporate cash. Just like the banks, they’ve become ‘too big to fail’.

More and more their programming reflects the tastes – and train timetables – of an alien clique.

Meanwhile, Stan’s Cafe remind us that, as of 1 October, city council funding for some of the smaller organisations ended (see my post with bonus hedgehog vid here):

last time I did the sums it appeared 50% of the City’s revenue funded portfolio was being cut by 100% to save 2.6% of the Arts Revenue budget. I can’t conceive how the city missed out on its last two bids to be crowned a Capital/City of Culture.

That last bit was sarcastic, btw.

CommunityForce is

a platform that empowers local projects and charities to raise awareness of their work and make their plans a reality with the support of NatWest and their local community.

Local charities and projects stand to be awarded £6k if they accumulate enough votes. Of the local projects, the following would appreciate your click:

• Indigo Arts
• Infamous Community Arts
• Petty hate Productions
• Redditch Arts Centre Steering Group
• West Midland Crystaletts Marching band
• Women & Theatre

Following the closure of the Creative Partnerships Programme, Bright Space announced that they would be closing. Today’s their last day.

This from Stan’s Cafe:

It’s sad because Brightspace were behind a huge number of inspirational projects that took artists into schools to work creatively with students and teachers. Now, despite a great report from OFSTED setting out the great value of these projects, the plug as been pulled, the axe has fallen, the bubble burst, the goose cooked, the turkey plucked, the swan sung and the full stopped.

I’d lost track of what’s happening with Creative England - I thought it was going to be based on a partnership of all the screen agencies but here’s a press release:

On Friday 30th September 2011, regional screen agency Screen WM will bring the curtain down on nine years of support for the screen media industries in the West Midlands and welcome Creative England as the new umbrella body for the creative sector.

The closure of Screen WM follows the coalition government’s decision to replace the UK Film Council’s support for film-making, which core-funded the regional screen agencies, with funding through the British Film Institute.

All the best to the folks working at these organisations who are moving on.

Sadly, I’m predicting a few more posts like this over the next few months.

A couple of commissions for things that’ll be done around these parts:

Jo Gleave’s project is a site-specific promenade performance taking place in the now-disused Newman Brother’s Coffin Fittings Factory.

The Pod Project by Illographics aims to inject positivity and creativity into a deprived area of Birmingham through a community space, where groups learn and share skills and ideas.

Today’s the day that arts organisations up and down the country will find out whether they’re going to receive funding over the next few years.

In case a bit of background’s useful, over the past few years, the Arts Council funds organisations in two ways – by giving cash on a project-by-project basis (that’s called Grants for the Arts) and through what’s called ‘regular funding’. In the latter you’d be given an amount of money over a period of time.

The regular funding part is changing – as from this time next year, there will be a number of organisations that will be known as National Portfolio Organisations. Today we’re finding out which those will be.

Headline figures:

Nationally, 695 organisations have National Portfolio status (down from around 880 that had regular funding previously). 206 organisations that were regularly funded didn’t make it into the portfolio. 110 organisations that weren’t regularly funded have got in.

In the West Midlands (and according to my rather iffy maths) we’ve gone from 66 regularly funded organisations to 50 National Portfolio Organisations.

National Portfolio Organisations in the West Midlands

As my first boss always told me – always work from first sources. The official Arts Council info is here. Of course, there’s only so much you can tell from a spreadsheet so the following won’t reveal much detail and may be slightly misleading in places (doesn’t take account of mergers or name changes). Still, this what I’ve made of it, and if I’ve made any mistakes, then please let me know (links are to statements put out by the orgs):

Funding increased from current position:

• Ace Dance And Music
• Arena
• Birmingham City University
• Black Country Touring
• Dancefest
• DanceXchange
• Fierce! Festival Limited
• Geese Theatre Company
• Live & Local Ltd
• Punch
• Stan’s Cafe
• Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service

It seems that some of these increases reflect mergers with other organisations, while others (Stan’s Cafe for one) have requested funding for money that would previously have come via applications to Grants For The Arts Awards.

Funding decreased:

• Arts Alive
• Belgrade Theatre
• Big Brum
• Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
• Birmingham Opera Company
• Birmingham Repertory Theatre Limited
• Birmingham Royal Ballet
• C&T
• City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
• Craftspace
• Dance Touring Consortium Limited
• Dash
• Ex Cathedra
• Ikon Gallery Limited
• Ixia
• Ledbury Poetry Festival
• Midlands Arts Centre (MAC)
• Motionhouse Dance Theatre
• Multistory
• New Art Gallery Walsall
• New Vic Theatre
• Pentabus Theatre
• Rhubarb Rhubarb
• Royal Shakespeare Company
• SAMPAD
• Talking Birds Theatre Company Ltd
• The Courtyard Centre for the Arts
• The Drum
• Tindal Street Press
• Warwick Arts Centre
• Welsh National Opera

As a side note, most of the reductions in funding here are relatively small. In a few cases they’re  a little more significant – check the spreadsheet for full info.

New to the portfolio:

• 2 FaCeD DaNcE Company Ltd
• Imagineer Productions
• Meadow Arts
• Nofit State Community Circus
• Performances Birmingham
• Sonia Sabri Dance Company
• Writing West Midlands

Current RFOs that won’t be in the National Portfolio

Please be aware that a lack of inclusion in the National Portfolio doesn’t mean these are just going to shut up shop. There’s also a couple of orgs here (flagged up where they’ve alerted me) who’s funding will come from one of those who are in the portfolio. Of course, some of these might well have not made an application, preferring to stick to project funding.

• Audiences Central
• B Arts
• Bilston Craft Gallery (although they’re part of Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service)
• Black Voices
• Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company
• Chitraleka Dance Company
• Contemporary Glass Society
• Designer Maker West Midlands
• Foursight Theatre
• Hereford Photography Festival
• Ludlow Assembly Rooms
• Made
• Malvern Theatres Trust
• Open Theatre Company
• Rideout (Creative Arts For Rehabilitation)
• Shindig (which is now covered by Live & Local, so they’re fine)
• Sound It Out
• Theatre Absolute
• Vivid
• Writers in Prison Network

Links elsewhere:

• Arts Council England’s official info page
• Statement from DCMS/Jeremy Hunt
• A Google Doc showing all National Portfolio Organisations
• Before the official announcement was made there was plenty coming through on Twitter
• Clare Edwards is looking to gather feedback about Sound It Out “from those who have been involved or been touched by the work of SIO. Even if it doesn’t help their cause it might be useful to gather a bit of feedback for the company in these circumstances”.
• Birmingham Jazz – Joint Birmingham Bid Secures Arts Council Funding
• The British Journal of Photography reports that Rhubarb Rhubarb’s funding won’t quite cover their existing activities. Fundraising and new ways of working required
• D’log’s round-up
• Catherine Edwards has blogged about the status of various writing and theatre organisations
• Katy Raines at Indigo has blogged about the position regarding audience development organisations
• The Guardian have been doing a good rolling news update thing, covering the whole of the country. They’ve been doing some visualisations too.
• The Birmingham Post’s article is here

I’ll keep on updating this post as and when I can. If I’ve made any errors (which isn’t unlikely) then please let me know and I’ll correct them.

The theme for this years BASS Festival is Revolution, exploring physical movement, music as a weapon of change and celebrating the creators of radical new music and styles.

Punch are offering between £500 – £3000 through their BASS Commissions fund for artists to create new work in music, dance, spoken word and theatre.

Here’s the themes that they’re wanting commissioned pieces to explore;

Musical Revolutionaries: – artists who have changed the face of Black music

Promoting the next generation – what is the next big thing?

Showcases for heroes in the emergence of Dubstep, Hip Hop, Afrobeat Jazz.

May the Circle be Unbroken: Sounds that have made the soundtrack to changes in society such as Steel Pulse or Gospel singers

Spins and Flips: revolutions on the dance floor

Transformations: can you through words imagine new ways to present work or new stages to present it

There’s also a BASS Talent Award to be claimed, in association with Aspire 4u. Young people aged between 16-24 will have the opportunity to produce a specially commissioned performance, with an award of up to £1000.

For more information and how to apply, visit the Punch website. Deadline for applications is 12 noon on 14 February 2011.

Nicky Getgood’s written a brief but thoughtful piece on Ikon Eastside’s place in Digbeth’s cultural scene and what it might mean if the place were to close as a result of the recently announced funding cuts.

The BPo reported on the possibility of this happening yesterday with a few quotes hinting at the situation at Ex Cathedra and Performances Birmingham from people who work there.

You may remember some discussion on this site about the impending announcement of Birmingham City Council’s arts budget cuts. Well, following a Cabinet meeting yesterday, the results are in.

My first boss always told me to work from first principles and sources, therefore:

• The Cabinet report is here (PDF); and
• The figures are here (Excel doc)

So, if you’re interested, have a look for yourselves.

If you’re in a rush

The cuts don’t quite match those suggested by that leaked document but they aren’t far off. The overall 17% cut for 2010/11 was right, at least.

Here are a few headlines:

• Performances Birmingham get a 23% cut
• Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Rep get an 18% cut
• Birmingham Opera Company,  Ikon, Dancexchange and Ex Cathedra get a 15% cut
• CBSO, The Drum and sampad get a 9% cut
• BCMG, Craftspace, Birmingham Jazz, Big Brum, Women & Theatre, Sound It Out, ACE Dance, Tindal Street Press, Stan’s Cafe, Fierce and RBSA will be funded for 6 months (‘transitional’ funding). After that they get nothing
• Capsule, Chitraleka, Friction Arts, The Playhouse, Punch, Vivid and Reel Access won’t be taken into the council’s portfolio of funded organisations (as was apparently planned before all this kicked off)
• There’s a project commissioning budget of about £250,000 which those smaller organisations (and others) can apply into

An observation – the project funding post has increased from £40,000 to £250,000. That increase would more than cover the funding taken away from those smaller organisations (£113,000 would do it).

The leaked figures suggested a rather bleak scenario of 2012/13 and 2013/14 – one that’s been described as ‘politically unacceptable’. The idea, as I understand it, is for the figures announced yesterday to hold for the next three years. Funding is to be kept at this level by income generated by (for example) sponsorship secured by the likes of Performances Birmingham (Town Hall/Symphony Hall to you and I). I must admit I’m a bit fuzzy on how this is meant to work. Would be happy for any clarification.

If you want the really quick version

Dave Harte says: “Sounds like there was some retreat from Brum arts cuts as leaked but with an expected 6000% increase in need for bid writing.”

If you want some other views

• Birmingham Budget Cuts report on the cuts with bonus visualisation
• The Stage’s report
• The Birmingham Post’s report
• Audiences Central’s report on Council funding more generally
• The (comparatively) shiny happy version from the Council

If you’d rather see some cute photos of hedgehogs taking a bath

Then that would be completely understandable. Here you go.

The Big Give helps to boost the amount of money given to other charities. They have double-your-donation challenges once in a while and one of those kicks off today (supported by Arts & Business).

Around Birmingham there are a couple of projects to back:

• The MAC are looking for just over £15m to cover building costs
• Birmingham Royal Ballet are after £800,000 for their staging of Cinderella

Actually, neither of these are very clear. Cinderella opened a few days back and is on until 12 December. The MAC seem to be after twice as much as The Big Give made as a whole last year, although you can’t fault the ambition.

Just to widen the net a little to the rest of the West Mids, Ironbridge, The Courtyard and Pentabus all have appeals. Of those with a national focus, Dance Umbrella and The Campaign for Drawing are looking for donations.

UPDATE

The MAC’s own website says they’re after £6k, not £15m.

Last night I was sent a link to a document showing what appears to be the amount of funding Birmingham City Council will put into arts organisations over the next few years. I ummed and ahhed about posting it but it’s all over Twitter this morning anyway.

Big caveat on this – I’ve not heard an official announcement about this (or even much speculation, to be honest – there’s been more focus on the Arts Council England and the UK Film Council). Who’s been informed of these figures and whether they’re 100% correct, I have no idea. That said, I’ve asked around a few people and the general gist of it seems to be correct.

The document says these figures are ‘recommended’. If I understand rightly, they’ll be put to a public cabinet meeting on 13 December. If anyone has any info on that then feel free to share it. Info might be at birmingham.gov.uk/democracy but, well…

If they are right it doesn’t look good, but then not much news coming out of the council is at the moment. Savings of £300k a day need to be made and 10,000 jobs are going.

I’m not going to go through that document an pull apart the figures but the comment box is below if you want to discuss things. Just be aware that I’d rather not have to moderate any potentially defamatory comments.

UPDATE

The Business Desk have done some digging and been told (if I’m reading this right) that the doc that’s doing the rounds may be an example of ‘scenario planning’. Which isn’t to say it’s necessarily right or wrong.

Related to that planning, Birmingham City Council have released their budget consultation with a proposed business plan (PDF) which includes:

• Considering a “trust” and new operating model for museums and review of commercial approach
• Reviewing support for arts organisations (additional to existing savings of £0.525m in 2011/12)

See the doc for figures. Comments are welcomed, the deadline is 17 January 2011.

Ed Vaizey announced what his department’s doing with the British film industry earlier today. Since announcing the demise of the UK Film Council things have been a bit up in the air. Some of those things are still up there, but we know a bit more now. You can read the full official announcement from DCMS here.

On a local level, and in short, the regional screen agencies (including Screen WM locally) are being ‘recalibrated’ into three hubs; Creative North, Creative Central and Creative South. Creative England will be the overarching organisation.

And I, for one, welcome our new film overlords.

More information will be coming in the new year but in the meantime here’s some explanation/more intelligent comment:

• From Screen WM – Statement from Screen England in response to Ed Vaizey’s announcement of proposals to form Creative England
• Birmingham Post – Screen WM faces major overhaul as merger plan is announced
• Producers’ Forum’s cautious response