Culture funding is still capital intensive
Two years since the publication of Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital, has funding disparity between London and the English regions been addressed?
In late 2013, Arts Council England (ACE) chairman Peter Bazalgette challenged the sector to “judge us in a couple of years” at that year’s Museums Association Conference. It was in response to the publication of GPS Culture’s report Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital, which addressed the notable funding imbalance between London and other English regions.
ACE’s Major Partner Museum funding has always had a relatively balanced geographical outlook and its pot for 2015-18 extended the spread.
But overall, government funding for museums is still significantly weighted towards London, says Christopher Gordon, one of the authors of the original GPS Culture report, thanks to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) funding the predominantly London-based national museums and galleries.
ACE’s grant-in-aid funding for its National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) also still favours London.
There is a push to secure more resources for NPOs outside London, says John Orna-Ornstein, ACE’s director of museums, but the percentages are hard to shift without damaging London. For ACE, the 2013 report has been a “useful contribution to the conversation”, he adds, as it continues that push.
Since the report came out, little has changed in policy terms, says Gordon, but the national conversation over funding disparity has gone mainstream. ACE’s rhetoric has also changed, and the report was instrumental in bringing about the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s inquiry into the arts council in 2014 which, in turn, has led to DCMS’s forthcoming white paper on culture.
GPS Culture’s work was consolidated last month in a new report, The Next Steps?, which calls for the white paper to address the imbalance in cultural funding between London and the English regions. The report also highlights the creeping use of lottery funding for core activities, and the potential of arts and culture in place- making, with public funds needed to support the areas of greatest need.
But for many regional museums the issue of department for culture and arts council funding disparities is “fiddling while Rome burns”, when compared with cuts to local authority funding for culture, says John Roles, the head of museums and galleries at Leeds City Council.
The question now is whether ACE and DCMS, which has itself been eviscerated by cuts, can wield any influence over the Treasury or the Department for Communities and Local Government.
ACE’s Major Partner Museum funding has always had a relatively balanced geographical outlook and its pot for 2015-18 extended the spread.
But overall, government funding for museums is still significantly weighted towards London, says Christopher Gordon, one of the authors of the original GPS Culture report, thanks to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) funding the predominantly London-based national museums and galleries.
ACE’s grant-in-aid funding for its National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) also still favours London.
There is a push to secure more resources for NPOs outside London, says John Orna-Ornstein, ACE’s director of museums, but the percentages are hard to shift without damaging London. For ACE, the 2013 report has been a “useful contribution to the conversation”, he adds, as it continues that push.
Since the report came out, little has changed in policy terms, says Gordon, but the national conversation over funding disparity has gone mainstream. ACE’s rhetoric has also changed, and the report was instrumental in bringing about the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s inquiry into the arts council in 2014 which, in turn, has led to DCMS’s forthcoming white paper on culture.
GPS Culture’s work was consolidated last month in a new report, The Next Steps?, which calls for the white paper to address the imbalance in cultural funding between London and the English regions. The report also highlights the creeping use of lottery funding for core activities, and the potential of arts and culture in place- making, with public funds needed to support the areas of greatest need.
But for many regional museums the issue of department for culture and arts council funding disparities is “fiddling while Rome burns”, when compared with cuts to local authority funding for culture, says John Roles, the head of museums and galleries at Leeds City Council.
The question now is whether ACE and DCMS, which has itself been eviscerated by cuts, can wield any influence over the Treasury or the Department for Communities and Local Government.