Move to change arts funding could ‘penalise’ grassroots, says charity

Four Corners Film: image from Fathom by Gayle Chong Kwan.

Small arts organisations will be ‘penalised’ if Arts Council funding is reallocated away from London, according to an East London arts charity.

Last month a Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee report called on the Arts Council to urgently redress the balance of funding away from the capital.

But Carla Mitchell, Development Director of Four Corners Film in Bethnal Green, described the report’s findings as “a broad brush measure that fails to recognise distinctions within London”.

Mitchell added: “The supposed disproportionate amount of funding granted to London is because the overwhelming proportion of funding goes to nationally significant arts organisations.

“This argument fails to recognise the smaller arts organisations that make up a vital network of London’s arts infrastructure, which will be penalised if [reallocation of funding] goes ahead.

“There’s a real risk in places like Hackney where arts organisations do hugely valuable work at a much more grassroots infrastructure level.”

Five organisations received 51 per cent of the Arts Council’s investment in National Portfolio and Major Partner Museums for London in 2014–15: the Royal Opera House, the Southbank Centre, the National Theatre, the English National Opera and the English National Ballet.

The Arts Council’s response to the DCMS report included the pledge “to build capacity outside of London whilst not damaging the infrastructure in the capital”.