Funding cut may close low-cost legal advice organisation

Published Wednesday 2 January 2008 at 14:30 by Lalayn Baluch

An organisation offering cut-price legal advice to arts groups across London has emerged as one of the latest victims of Arts Council England’s proposed funding cuts.

The legal arm of InterChange Studios, a community charity and education centre that has been running since the seventies, currently provides advice for almost 50 arts organisations and community groups in London every year - amounting to more than 25% of its annual work load.

However, as part of its review of regularly funded organisations, ACE has proposed not to renew the service’s £80,000 grant from next April. According to Peter Korn, head of InterChange Legal Advisory Service, this could mean the end for his department, which cannot be financially supported by other parts of the charitable organisation.

He believes that without the service, small arts companies will be forced to take vastly more expensive legal advice, or none at all. Korn also said that just one successful case fought by his team makes up more than the annual grant the legal department receives, and criticised ACE for cutting the budget without having an alternative provision in mind.

He told The Stage: “In the course of a few months we will work with Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Christians - it is accessible to a very wide range of different people. They seem to be comfortable coming to us and there isn’t really anything comparable. There is a bit of pro bono [free] advice out there, and there are one or two organisations that give advice in specific areas, such as intellectual property. But there are not really other organisations that follow through at a highly subsidised level, who are used to dealing with the charity sector and lots of ethnic groups and who follow through on a basis that people can afford.”

However, an ACE spokesperson said that InterChange was funded specifically for working with artists, and that despite setting targets, the service had failed to increase work in this area.

She added: “There are other agencies in London offering this kind of legal advice, and we have therefore proposed not to renew InterChange’s funding. We believe it is better to reinvest the money, where it will directly benefit artists.”