Nottingham Playhouse is “grateful” to have retained its funding from Arts Council England—four months after Nottinghamshire County Council slashed the whole of its £94,500 annual grant to the theatre.
The Playhouse has been awarded just over £4 million for the next three years, the same amount allocated for 2012 to 2015. However, when inflation is taken into account, this represents a slight cut.
The Playhouse says the Arts Council funding will not be used to replace the shortfall in local authority cash.
Instead it will “underline Nottingham Playhouse's commitment to new writing, to allow the theatre to expand its participation work in local communities across the city and county and offer continuation to Nottingham Playhouse's focus on producing high-quality theatre outside London”.
Chief executive Stephanie Sirr commented, “This is fantastic news for us; but we’re not complacent. We recognise that funding is becoming more difficult to secure and therefore we’ve adapted to changing funding situations.
“From our corporate sponsors and individual fundraisers through to our touring shows and our production of 1984 currently in the West End, all generate much-needed income for us.”