ACE attacked over plans for centres of excellence

Published Thursday 27 July 2006 at 16:40 by Nuala Calvi

Arts Council England’s centres of excellence strategy for black and minority ethnic theatre has come under fire from practitioners who claim ACE has failed to listen to their needs.

Groups attending a summit at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Talawa, Tara Arts, Tamasha and Nitro were invited to talks on how to implement recommendations in the Whose Theatre..? report by Baroness Lola Young. This favoured setting up four centres of excellence for ethnic performance groups around the country, with up to £5 million being ringfenced by ACE for the sector, following Talawa’s aborted plan to create the UK’s first black-led theatre building in Westminster.

Felix Cross, artistic director of Nitro, commented: “I felt and I’m sure others did, that there was another agenda which was all about BME organisations having to fit in with the arts council’s idea of black theatre provision.”

He said delegates at the meeting, who were divided into groups to discuss four subject areas - buildings, internationalism, critical analysis and leadership - had now been asked to submit a 1000-word statement to join one of four committees taking each area forward, which will report back in October.

“Having done all this, we have to write 1000 words about why we want to be on the committees. I have more important things to do. We need to see some concrete ideas - this is too process driven, not ideas led,” he added.

Cross urged organisations to put forward their own bids for the cash, before ACE came up with something “inappropriate”.

Nitro will request a new building with a rehearsal room big enough to allow it to rehearse large-scale musicals and preview them to producers, while Tamasha wants its own studio theatre. Meanwhile, Talawa still aims to have its own theatre. An ACE spokesman claimed it had received many positive comments from those attending the meeting.