According to The Stage, ACE has been accused of "cronyism" after it awarded an extra Lottery grant of £2.5m to the Royal Court, bringing its total grant to £18.8m. ACE chairman Gerry Robinson was a member of the Royal Court board and its chief fundraiser until March and took over at ACE in May. The award, which has been defended by Stpehen Daldry, director of the Royal Court, on the grounds that it was part of an already agreed three-part process, echoes the controversy over Lottery grants made to the ROH by ACE members who subsequently took jobs at the House.
Under new proposals announced last week, ACE will devolve responsibility for 36 companies to the Regional Arts Boards. The RABs will receive an annual grant of £122m from ACE, but no announcement has yet been made about individual budgets, even though it is alleged that RABs have already received notification from ACE. 93 companies will still receive their funding directly from ACE.
Concern about Welsh Arts funding
Concern about funding of the arts in Wales has been expressed following the resignation of the Secretary of State for Wales, Ron Davies, who was known and respected as an arts supporter. Unlike in England and Scotland, no extra money for the arts has yet beeen promised for Wales.
An agrrement between the National Theatre and LLoyds TSB will enable the company to tour schools in the UK with the Lloyds TSB Live! drama programme in which 100 pupils at a time will work with eight NT actors and then take part in an "interactive" performance of Two Gentlemen of Verona. It is expected that a total of 5,000 children will be involved.
After last month's announcement by chairman Tim Rice that the income of the Foundation for Sport and the Arts has fallen to £135,000 a week as a result of competition from the National Lottery, the FSA has announced grants of almost "140,000 to Drama students, including its largest ever grant of £30,000 to Oxford School of Drama pupil Dominic Evans.