The Stage

Industry alarm at ACE ‘talent drain’

Published Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 17:15 by Alistair Smith

Arts Council England’s restructuring of its national office has come under fire from the theatre industry, with leading figures warning that the loss of talent and experience ahead of the impending Comprehensive Spending Review is a “major concern”.

Equity general secretary Christine Payne has taken the step of writing to ACE chief executive Peter Hewitt to express her worries over the changes in staffing, which will see some of the organisation’s most senior and well respected figures taking voluntary redundancy. The move comes as the theatre sector braces itself for what many observers fear could be a very poor Treasury settlement for the arts.

Payne warned: “I understand that as part of the current round of voluntary redundancies ACE will be losing considerable experience and expertise in theatre. We are particularly alarmed by the departure of Nicola Thorold [director of theatre], Kim Evans [executive director, arts], Elizabeth Adlington [director of touring], Jeanette Siddall [director of dance] and Pauline Tambling [executive director, development].”

She added: “These changes are of major concern to Equity, especially as we are currently approaching what is likely to be a very difficult government funding round which will be closely followed by preparation for the Olympics which may mean that the DCMS’ attention will be on sport rather than culture.”

The move comes soon after West End producer Thelma Holt was reported as having called for ACE chairman Christopher Frayling to publicly explain what she claimed looked like “the dismantling of the council”. Frayling told The Sunday Times that he had not expected the changes to be “so dramatic” and admitted that the council was now “a very tense and demoralised place”. Under the restructuring, 33 jobs have been axed from the national office, representing 25% of staff who are covered by the review.

Meanwhile, Independent Theatre Council director Charlotte Jones said that it was important that, with the CSR approaching, expertise was not lost, but added that in principle she was in favour of ACE’s decision to streamline and hoped that more money would now be channelled towards the arts.

She added: “What this throws up is a need for ACE to engage much more directly with other organisations such as ITC and Equity to make sure that the expertise is not lost.”

Hewitt acknowledged that he had received the letter from Equity and admitted that it was a “time of change for the arts council” but said that the restructuring was designed to strengthen the organisation and provide greater focus on strategy. He added: “We are moving to recruit the new posts within the new structure and have begun advertising for executive directors for the new arts strategy department. We hope to have completed the recruitment process for the executive directors and directors by the end of next month. We are also making interim arrangements while the recruitment processes are continuing.

“We do not expect that any of this will impact either on the service to arts organisations or our capacity to make the case for arts to government - quite the reverse.”