 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
News
|
|||
|
News
|
Dateline: 4th March, 2006
Borderline Loses SAC Funding Borderline Theatre Company have been told by the Scottish Arts Council that their revenue funding from the Scottish Arts Council will cease after March, 2007. The Scottish Arts Council told Borderline, one of Scotland's leading and longest established touring theatre companies, that they were not in fashion with the quango as "the council's rationale is to support artists and Borderline are audience-focused." This rationale means that Borderline, whose work has entertained almost a million people across Scotland in its 32 years, will cease touring productions from March, 2007. Borderline is the only arts company in Ayrshire to receive core funding from the Scottish Arts Council. Whilst the company's Board of Management will be considering alternative business models, this decision could well mean that Borderline Theatre Company would cease to exist altogether, the company suggests. and this would mean the potential loss of Borderline's extensive Lifelong Learning Programme which last year delivered over 1100 workshops with 18,168 people taking part. Commenting on the Scottish Arts Council's decision, Borderline's Chairman Ian Welsh said, ""Yet again we see the stark mismatch of the rhetoric of the Scottish Executive and the decisions of the Scottish Arts Council. It is questionable that the Scottish Arts Council should be permitted to make these decisions in the year of their demise. "Borderline has continually been at the forefront of the access and inclusion agenda in the Arts - making work that is interesting and accessible to everyone in Scotland. In the last five years almost 91,000 people have seen a Borderline production - more than any other Scottish Arts Council funded touring theatre company. That's a lot of people to be dismissed by the Scottish Arts Council. "We have continually worked collaboratively with artists such as Liz Lochhead and supported them as we all work towards presenting the best possible productions and experiences for audiences and all within our financial limits. Our productions have never been in greater demand from venues. "Essentially the SAC's decisions are the actions of a vain coterie intent on leaving their mark on the Scottish Arts infrastructure before their own demise. This demise was in part caused by their own failure to control the wasteful extravagance of the big guns of the arts and more crucially to make the arts accessible to a wider Scottish public. The Scottish Arts Council's new prioritisation of drama funding displays an arrogant disregard of the access agenda as espoused by First Minister Jack McConnell's St Andrews day address. Their cull of companies who have access at their heart betray their narrow exclusive vision of the arts." SAC
Statement Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
||
|
|
