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Dateline: 14th December, 2007
ACE Proposes Eastern Angles Grant Cut Arts Council England has told Eastern Angles Theatre Company, which tours rural areas of East Anglia, that it is proposing to cut its annual grant from £218,000 to £115,000 from 2009. The letter which the company received, from Andrea Stark, Regional Executive Director of Arts Council England, East, said, "We have made this recommendation because Eastern Angles' work is focussed on a limited geographical area and, despite additional investment through Arts Council England Theatre Plan, you have not widened your touring networks sustainably so that your overall reach remains sub-regional." "Significantly," says artistic director Ivan Cutting, "they state no complaint about the quality of our work." He adds, "During the last five years an ACE officer has attended only two of our Board meetings (July 2003 & January 2006). None of our annual reviews has raised any issue of serious concern. After our last review our lead officer, who was leaving, emailed us: 'It's been good work (sic) with you both over the years and to see the transformation in the company and I hope Eastern Angles continues to go from strength to strength'." ACE East said they want "to prioritise increased revenue funding for the region's major capital partnership projects and for the development of arts organisations in some of the region's key geographical locations." Cutting replies, "We have no argument with this, but if it means they are diverting resources from rural areas to fund their own plans in larger urban towns and cities, then it flies in the face of the Arts Council's own commitment to rural resources. "The East of England, which demonstrably has significant rural areas, could be left with a single rural touring company on only £115k a year. Even before this cut we lagged behind the companies working in other rural areas such as Pentabus (West Midlands), New Perspectives (East Midlands), Northumberland TC (North East), Kneehigh (South West), or Oxfordshire Touring and Forest Forge (South)."
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