Arts groups facing 6.9 per cent budget cuts
26th October 2010
Most arts organisations, including a number of literature and reading groups, will face funding cuts of almost seven per cent in 2011/12, it has been revealed.
Arts Council England published details of how it will implement the 29.6 per cent reduction in its budget that was announced in the government's Comprehensive Spending Review and confirmed that the majority of arts organisations will see a 6.9 per cent decrease in their funding.
The budget for literature and reading charity Booktrust will be cut by GBP 21,410 during 2011/12, while the allocation for London's Poetry Society will fall by GBP 19,393.
Residential creative writing organisation the Arvon Foundation is facing a GBP 20,208 funding reduction and independent publisher Carcanet Press, a poetry specialist, will lose GBP 8,441.
Liz Forgan, chair of the Arts Council, commented: 'We are determined to lead the arts through this tough period, using all our knowledge, expertise and brokering skills and drawing on the resourcefulness and imagination around us.'
Last week, Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey said that culture secretary Jeremy Hunt asked the organisation not to reduce its funding to arts groups by more than 15 per cent during the next four years.