UPDATE ON THE UK CUTS…

The inaugural meeting of Fightback Against Cuts in the Arts & Sport (FACAS) took place in London on Wednesday 15 December 2010. The first meeting of FACAS aimed to l discuss how to best intervene in the campaign against cuts in the Arts and Sport and how best to support the wider campaign against the cuts. The meeting was called by members of the Coalition of Resistance (www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk) – a broad united national campaign against cuts and privatisation in workplaces, community, educational and welfare services. For updates on cuts to the arts (and elsewhere) in the UK go to http://falseeconomy.org.uk/cuts/sectors/type/arts-and-culture. Examples of the cuts in the UK include:
• A £350 million cut in the Arts Council of England budget
• ‘Creativity, Culture and Education’ is to lose 50% of its ACE funding. Their national ‘Find Your Talent’ programme will go. This encourages young people to learn a musical instrument, perform and go to concerts and has 2,500 schools in its scheme, helping 400,000 children.
• the recent Comprehensive Spending Review left local councils facing an average cut of 28 per cent. The non-statutory status of local funding for cultural services has meant that the arts sector is left vulnerable to bear the brunt of these local authority cuts.
• Somerset County Council became the first local authority to announce that it was axing all of its arts funding.
• Birmingham City Council has cut its arts funding for 2011/12 by 17%, with 11 smaller arts groups losing all their grant.
• Lewisham Council voted for a massive cuts package on 29 November and had already announced that five libraries were to close as well as extra-curricular sports activities for school kids
• Darlington Borough Council is preparing to withdraw the subsidy from Darlington Civic Theatre and the Darlington Arts Centre; which may lead to their closure, as it attempts to trim £22m from its £107m budget.
• The arts in Rochdale are also facing significant cuts, as budgets for all parts of the arts and heritage service are to be severely reduced, often by 50 per cent.
• Leeds College of Music, Courtauld’s Institute of Art, The Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, The Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music, The Royal College of Music, The Rose Bruford College and the Central School of Speech and Drama are losing their entire teaching grants.
• Among museums, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Geffrye Museum, the Horniman, the National Coal Mines Museum and the Peoples History Museum will be losing their Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) grant.