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Post by Jan on Nov 7, 2022 13:42:12 GMT
8% to 0% will make a difference. Staffing, cleaning contracts..I dunno but it ain’t nothing. Their funding has been cut by £500k. Their capacity is 250 and they’re charging £1000-£2000 a seat for the benefit night they’re running so that should cover a lot of the shortfall this year. Some of the people attending that can can no doubt be persuaded to contribute on a more regular basis. I see Sam Mendes has been vocal in condemning the cut - he could contribute from his personal fortune couldn’t he ? It is much easier for the Donmar to access private funds than (for example) The Watermill Newbury which has also had a 100% cut. |
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Post by Jon on Nov 7, 2022 14:07:21 GMT
8% to 0% will make a difference. Staffing, cleaning contracts..I dunno but it ain’t nothing. Their funding has been cut by £500k. Their capacity is 250 and they’re charging £1000-£2000 a seat for the benefit night they’re running so that should cover a lot of the shortfall this year. Some of the people attending that can can no doubt be persuaded to contribute on a more regular basis. I see Sam Mendes has been vocal in condemning the cut - he could contribute from his personal fortune couldn’t he ? It is much easier for the Donmar to access private funds than (for example) The Watermill Newbury which has also had a 100% cut. It alway surprised me that the Donmar got less than Hampstead. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 7, 2022 14:56:29 GMT
Their funding has been cut by £500k. Their capacity is 250 and they’re charging £1000-£2000 a seat for the benefit night they’re running so that should cover a lot of the shortfall this year. Some of the people attending that can can no doubt be persuaded to contribute on a more regular basis. I see Sam Mendes has been vocal in condemning the cut - he could contribute from his personal fortune couldn’t he ? It is much easier for the Donmar to access private funds than (for example) The Watermill Newbury which has also had a 100% cut. It alway surprised me that the Donmar got less than Hampstead. To each according to their need I suppose. The Kiln gets almost £1m a year. |
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Post by Jon on Nov 7, 2022 15:10:24 GMT
To each according to their need I suppose. The Kiln gets almost £1m a year. The Kiln has the advantage that it's in a London borough which is being targeted for increased support in the arts. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 11, 2022 6:13:32 GMT
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Post by Someone in a tree on Nov 11, 2022 7:44:11 GMT
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Post by Jan on Nov 11, 2022 7:59:59 GMT
The section on WNO is interesting. They don't mention at all the context of the ENO being obliged to relocate out of London and being funded with £12.8m a year to do so. Given that it's not really a surprise that WNO, that is already getting funding from the Arts Council of Wales, is to lose part of its additional funding from ACE which was being spent on touring to English venues outside London (their ACE grant has been cut from £6m to £4m). WNO says “Obviously provision of opera to England is going to have to come down” but it doesn't follow that provision of opera to England outside London is going to come down overall, that depends on how ENO reinvent themselves. As far as I can see funding opera in England outside London is being massively increased. |
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Post by Jon on Nov 11, 2022 11:55:50 GMT
The section on WNO is interesting. They don't mention at all the context of the ENO being obliged to relocate out of London and being funded with £12.8m a year to do so. Given that it's not really a surprise that WNO, that is already getting funding from the Arts Council of Wales, is to lose part of its additional funding from ACE which was being spent on touring to English venues outside London (their ACE grant has been cut from £6m to £4m). WNO says “Obviously provision of opera to England is going to have to come down” but it doesn't follow that provision of opera to England outside London is going to come down overall, that depends on how ENO reinvent themselves. As far as I can see funding opera in England outside London is being massively increased. I always thinks it's best to look beyond the headlines when it comes to articles to ACE funding because a lot of them are mainly ACE and government bashing when the reality is somewhat different. ENO have been on notice from ACE for years, likewise Hampstead about needing to do better or risk losing funding so the whole act of them being blindsided doesn't ring true. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 11, 2022 14:54:10 GMT
An 18% inflation-busting increase in overall ACE funding in the middle of a recession makes Government bashing difficult. Even R.Norris made quite measured and sensible comments on it.
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Post by mkb on Nov 11, 2022 15:10:47 GMT
Giving to some organisations while taking away from others (which will likely lead to cut-backs for the latter) is pretty cruel in these uncertain and worrying times.
It would have been kinder, just while we ride out the recession, for ACE to use that 18% to give inflationary increases to the existing recipients who are still trading, and use only the remainder for new initiatives.
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Post by Jon on Nov 11, 2022 15:26:23 GMT
Giving to some organisations while taking away from others (which will likely lead to cut-backs for the latter) is pretty cruel in these uncertain and worrying times. It would have been kinder, just while we ride out the recession, for ACE to use that 18% to give inflationary increases to the existing recipients who are still trading, and use only the remainder for new initiatives. ACE has always operated like that, it's not fair but that how it works. |
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Post by anxiousoctopus on Nov 11, 2022 15:41:59 GMT
I’ve always felt cynical about the ‘levelling up’ stuff. Not that giving extra funding to the north is a bad thing, but I’m just aware that the government’s main aim in this is essentially bribing undervalued northern cities to vote Tory again (despite how disastrous they’ve been for the entire country)
Also the idea of taking away excess funding from London to give to more needy venues falls apart when non-London theatres (like the Watermill and Hope Mill theatres) have had their funding completely cut. It really does seem like they’re throwing money at the north for votes rather than a sense of altruism
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Post by Jan on Nov 11, 2022 23:33:12 GMT
I’ve always felt cynical about the ‘levelling up’ stuff. Not that giving extra funding to the north is a bad thing, but I’m just aware that the government’s main aim in this is essentially bribing undervalued northern cities to vote Tory again (despite how disastrous they’ve been for the entire country) Also the idea of taking away excess funding from London to give to more needy venues falls apart when non-London theatres (like the Watermill and Hope Mill theatres) have had their funding completely cut. It really does seem like they’re throwing money at the north for votes rather than a sense of altruism So how come they are giving lots of new and extra funding and relocating London organisations to Labour-run big Northern cities like Manchester and Birmingham which will never do anything other than return Labour MPs ? Newbury on the other hand has a Conservative MP who could be at risk from The LibDems so why did they allow that to be cut 100% ? Well, not 100% really, ACE funding only made up 14% of the Watermills total income. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Nov 15, 2022 8:39:31 GMT
@jan, I suspect the ACE deciding bods arent Tory voters. Sure it has to be signed off by ministers, perhaps a lot of this was done in the summer by the hysterical Dorries which explains a lot.
I dont know what Michelle Donelan is like at all but she can't be worse than Dorries can she?
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Post by cavocado on Nov 15, 2022 9:19:09 GMT
Greater Manchester has several Tory MPs, some with very small majorities, but I don't know the demographics. I doubt opera in itself is a great vote-winner anywhere, but this will play into the narrative of a populist govt taking £12m from subsidising the leisure activity of wealthy southern socialists.
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Post by londonpostie on Nov 15, 2022 10:19:41 GMT
Albeit with due warning to those of concern, it has always been the role of ACE to cull the weak and promote the promising: keeps everyone on their toes and rewards coherent aspiration. Isn't the same argument had every year?
Plus, leveling up isn't just a Manifesto pledge, it is a Government Department. Under Michael Gove. It is national policy with serious people in charge, and ACE spends a lot of public money.
For ENO, the Coliseum is an enormous 2, 350 seat, 120-year old, music hall albatross. A straight-jacket. Surely most people can see flexibility is the only way. I hope the organisation has the chutzpah to embrace what it has clearly feared for decades.
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Post by cavocado on Nov 15, 2022 11:08:23 GMT
Flexibility and more touring seems the way forward, but better to support the ENO in working out the best way to do that, whether that's touring from a (smaller?) London base, or choosing their own regional location based on demand/venue availability/consultation with local authorities and other opera companies, rather than being told where to go?
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Post by Someone in a tree on Nov 23, 2022 14:46:44 GMT
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Post by properjob on Nov 23, 2022 19:18:19 GMT
I wonder how that relates to the quarter thought out plan to move ENO to Manchester? Has WNO picked Liverpool as the city to cut because it thinks ENO is about to appear in Manchester even though they might not? Alternatively have they picked Liverpool because it was a city they were least successful in which would not bode well for a permanent opera company in Manchester? |
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Post by londonpostie on Nov 24, 2022 8:07:00 GMT
I imagine the average travel time to The Coliseum is no worse than Liverpool to Manchester - an hour- 1 hour 20 on the train, or 37-mins on the Pennine Express.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Nov 24, 2022 9:06:16 GMT
What time is the last train back?
Will Northern Rail have pulled up their socks ?
How many matinées will be scheduled? (I would see more at opera North if afternoons were a thing).
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Post by londonpostie on Nov 24, 2022 10:15:13 GMT
I'll check the internet when I get home.
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Post by n1david on Nov 28, 2022 16:07:59 GMT
ENO continue to fight:
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Post by Jan on Dec 8, 2022 7:21:25 GMT
Glad to see Hampstead are ditching their "new plays only" policy, they've always seemed uncomfortable with it in recent years. We have more than enough venues for new plays in London.
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Post by marob on Dec 5, 2023 11:13:01 GMT
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