22 June 2010

Arts Council England has given details of how it will implement the £19 million cut to its 2010/11 income from government, as announced by the Department for Culture Media and Sport on 24 May.
The cut follows another in-year reduction of £4 million in April 2009, meaning that the Arts Council's original 2010/11 budget has been reduced from £468 million to £445 million.
The Arts Council state that they aim to protect and develop art, and the organisations that enable it to happen, to the fullest extent possible. The cut to regularly funded organisations' 2010/11 income from Arts Council will, therefore, be limited to 0.5 per cent. This has been made possible through the use of £9 million of the Arts Council's historic reserves, access to which was previously blocked by government.
The £19 million will be shared out as follows:

• £9 million form the Arts Council's historic reserves, as explained above

• £1.8 million from revenue grants to regularly funded organisations (0.5% reduction)

• £1.8 million from the revenue grants of the two highest funded organisations not directly producing art (£1.6 million from Creativity Culture and Education and £0.2 million from Arts & Business - a 4% reduction)

• £0.4 million from further cuts to the Arts Council's operating costs (bringing savings on operating costs to a total of £6.9 million this year)

• £6 million from savings due to the postponement of a major public engagement project, cuts to audience development plans, and to funds for partnership working with local authorities and the private sector.

The reduction to regularly funded organisations' grants will be taken from the final payment of the year (in most cases the quarterly payment due in January 2011) in order to give them the maximum time to adjust their financial plans.
Arts Council England's budget for the next three years (2011-14) will be decided in the government's Spending Review, for which results are expected in the autumn.
For more information on the cuts, visit the Arts Council Press Office here.