Hundreds protest against 'heartbreaking' Arts Council funding cuts

Hundreds of protesters gathered in London and Manchester to oppose Arts Council England cuts to organisations including English National Opera and Oldham Coliseum that were branded "cultural vandalism".

Dual protests took place on November 14 outside ACE’s London and Manchester offices, with opera singer Lesley Garrett among those joining the protest in London and actor Julie Hesmondhalgh among those campaigning in the north.

Garrett joined members of the ENO Chorus at the London event and ended the protest with a performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Speaking of the Arts Council’s cut to ENO, Garrett said: "It’s my family. They are threatening my family."

Garrett, who has a long history with ENO, also said she was concerned for the opera sector in general and the dwindling budgets for touring operas. She added: "If you cut those budgets, regional theatres die."

The protesters demanded that the 100% funding cuts made in the recent NPO announcement to organisations including ENO, Oldham Coliseum, the Donmar Warehouse and Watermill Theatre be reversed.

Equity delivered three letter across the two cities at the protest, as unions came together to warn that more events will take place over the coming weeks. 

A letter delivered at the London protest labelled the ENO funding cut as "ill-judged and ill-considered" and said it would have a "devastating impact" on the sector. 

A letter delivered to the Manchester office said that despite new North West companies joining the portfolio, Equity was "extremely disappointed" that the Regional Theatre Young Directors Scheme and Oldham Coliseum had had their funding cut.

At the London protest, BECTU head Philippa Childs said: "We are really angry that Arts Council England has decided to stop funding the ENO for the future and to move out of London.

"You don’t ‘level up’ by taking money from one area to move to the other – it’s like taking from Peter to pay Paul."

Childs added: "The decision by the Arts Council is an act of cultural vandalism. We must see it reversed."

Paul W Fleming, general secretary of Equity, also spoke at the London protest and said: "Levelling up is the lipstick on the pig of austerity – that is the truth.

"Our industries have sustained almost half a billion pounds worth of cuts since 2005. [The Arts Council] now wants to tell us that by taking money out of London, there will be some richly deserved rewards somewhere else in the UK."

Fleming said the 100% funding cut for non-London venues such as Oldham Coliseum was just "as unacceptable" and that the cuts were not only "economically illiterate" but "morally inexcusable".

More than 150 people turned up to the London protest, where Fleming announced steps Equity is urging ACE to consider.

He said: "Fundamentally, we are here to say that no single cuts should happen without a clear plan as to how it does not affect the workforce and how it creates economic growth for the communities in which they are sited.

Musicians’ Union general secretary Naomi Pohl added: "For me, the message is to the government because there was obviously a clear instruction that ACE had to take money out of London, and this [the cuts to ENO and others] is the impact of that. For us, it is about the full-time employed jobs we are potentially going to lose and what on earth ENO is going to do next."

She added: "We are very concerned that [ENO] might be talking about redundancies, and then you are talking about public money spent on redundancies when it could be spent on retaining a company."

In Manchester, about 80 people joined the protest, including Hesmondhalgh, who described the cuts to Oldham Coliseum as "outrageously out of step".

"Oldham Coliseum’s work during lockdown was industry-leading and, at a time when the national conversation is so focused on levelling up and the importance of art and culture for the regeneration of struggling northern industrial towns, taking away the lifeline of the NPO status feels outrageously out of step and, frankly, heartbreaking. This is a catastrophic moment for the town and its people," she said.

Last week, it emerged that ENO chief executive Stuart Murphy had secured an emergency meeting with the culture secretary, Michelle Donelan, to discuss ENO’s 100% cut.

An emergency meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Opera is due to take place on November 16, to discuss how to challenge the withdrawal of ENO’s ACE funding.