Hewitt to answer theatre professionals in ‘testing’ ACE cuts meeting

Published Wednesday 2 January 2008 at 13:45 by Alistair Smith

Arts Council England chief executive Peter Hewitt is to face an interrogation by leading theatre figures next week at an emergency meeting called to address concerns at the scores of arts organisations threatened with potentially fatal funding cuts.

Equity has organised an open meeting, for members and non-members, at the Young Vic on January 9, and Hewitt has agreed to answer questions from concerned parties. ACE’s latest spending review has seen 194 organisations faced with cuts, including Exeter’s Northcott Theatre, the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford, Eastern Angles touring company, London Bubble, the National Student Drama Festival and the Drill Hall in London. The arts council has already come under fire from organisations such as the National Campaign for the Arts and the Theatrical Management Association over the proposed cuts.

Union general secretary Christine Payne told The Stage: “We’ve called this meeting because information has not been made available about the underlying rationale for what is a surprising round of cuts. It’s surprising because the arts council got an unexpectedly high funding round from government. So we need to know why these cuts.

“We welcome the fact that Peter Hewitt is coming. We feel that him coming part way through the appeals process is a recognition of the importance of our members to the organisations ACE funds. We think that it will be a testing meeting for him - inevitably, he will face a certain amount of anger.”

Hewitt has agreed to talk about the arts council’s overall funding strategy, which also includes plans to introduce around 80 new companies to its regularly funded portfolio. However, he has said he will not be able to discuss individual cases because the appeals process is currently underway. Organisations have until January 15 to officially challenge any proposed cuts and ACE will make its final decisions at the end of January.

According to Payne, Equity is hopeful that the meeting might help change some of ACE’s views.

She added: “We hope to influence arts council thinking, but we have no prior knowledge of whether that is even possible. We don’t know how open to change these proposals are. But, I am expecting a very significant turn-out at the Young Vic, including some of the best known names in the British theatre industry.”

Any theatre professional wishing to attend the event, which will be held at the Young Vic on January 9 from 11am, should email mbrown@equity.org.uk