"£100m is not enough," says Hall
In their response to the Arts Council's request for an additional £100m (of which £25m should go to theatre), Peter Hall and his Shadow Arts Council have told the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon brown that £100m will "not be enough to restore viability to many particularly worthwhile activities."
The statement goes on to say that, in spite of the fact that the government has increased arts spending in real terms since taking office, what they have done is not enough to make up for the cuts made by the previous government.
Innovation, the statement said, can only come from the subsidised sector, because of the commercial sector's need to make profit. It must generate a higher return on its investment so it dare not take risks. "The most talented, innovative and experimental serious arts," the letter goes on, "are dependent for survival on piblic support."
West End unfriendly to the disabled, SCOPE claims
SCOPE, the national organisation devoted to improving the lot of the disabled, has claimed that 42% of West End theatres are not accessible to wheelchair users.
"Just three steps can make a theatre inaccessible," spokeswoman Sonya Roberts said, and went on to claim that online and telephone ticket agencies make the situation worse as they cannot give disabled-access information.
Janek Alexander, director of Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre, has lost his libel case against the Arts Council of Wales and Joanna Weston, its chief executive. He sued after ACW's decision, in 1998, to reject the Chapter's bid for £3.8m, which meant that more than £1m of matched funding was also lost.
Weston suggested in a press briefing that the Chapter's bid failed because Alexander was negligent and incompetent, and it is these accusations, which Alexander's lawyer claims "drove him to despair", which form the basis of the action, which was expected to last for four weeks.
However the judge halted the case because the comments were covered by "qualified privilege".
Alexander is now considering the possibility of an appeal.
"The Arts Council never argued that there was any truth in any allegation that Chapter’s request for funding was turned down because of any defect in the material which I had submitted,” he said.
New classic theatre for the Borders
The Dovecot Theatre, in the grounds of the Cringletie House Hotel, near Peebles in the Scottish Borders, is running an open-air summer season of music, opera and classic theatre, which will last until August. There will be eight shows in the season, produced by the Baudrans Theatre Company.
The 300-seater theatre has been prvately funded by the hotel's owners to the tune of £400,000.
Axe VAT on theatre tickets, government told
The Institute of Entertainment and Arts Management (IEAM) has called on the government to abolish VAT on theatre tickets, thus freeing up money which would enable venues to have a reasonable existence.
Teachers to see Robinson Report
Professor Ken Robinson's report on the importance of cultural activities in schools, All Our Futures, will at last be available to schools. As we reported last year, the government considered that the cost of circulating the report to be too much (approximately £4000), and would not allow any other organisation to fund its publication because of copyright concerns.
Now, thanks to donations totalling £20,000 from Paul Hamlyn and the Calouse Gulbenkian Foundation, Robinson and the National Campaign for the Arts have produced a summary which will be circulated to teachers through the major teaching unions.