ARTS COUNCIL FUNDING

Motion Text

That this House notes that the Government's grant-in-aid to the Arts Council has been frozen over the next three financial years, representing a total cut of £34 million available to the arts nationally; recognises that this will cause difficulties for many of the organisations whose budgets rely on financial support from the Arts Council, including 245 catering for the visual arts; therefore considers it prudent not to embark on future capital projects which will cause additional revenue demands on the public purse, such as the proposed £17 million visual arts facility at Colchester which will have a projected annual loss of £700,000, and which the majority of local residents do not want; calls on the Arts Council to review its support for this and other loss-making proposed new galleries; and urges the Arts Council to limit its support to those new projects which are financially sustainable and do not rely on publicly funded annual subsidies to cover operating losses.