Hytner criticises ACE’s ‘strategic catastrophe’

Published Wednesday 16 January 2008 at 18:25 by Lalayn Baluch

National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner has branded recent funding proposals by Arts Council England as “bollocks”, and its spending review a “strategic catastrophe”.

While he agreed with the principle of cutting some companies to allow new organisations into the funding system, Hytner said that ACE had handled the situation poorly and created a “terrible mess”.

He said: “I think that the arts council should be encouraged to think boldly, otherwise new companies and new ideas will not emerge because there is no support. Having said that, the current situation is a terrible mess. [The proposals] seem to be ill thought through, and certainly very unfair on those who have been told to prepare for the cuts.”

The artistic director also revealed that he had personally lobbied ACE on behalf of three companies facing cuts - the Bush Theatre, Exeter’s Northcott Theatre and the National Student Drama Festival.

He said: “I have to assume that among the 194 that are going to be cut, there are some that should be. One assumes that that must be the case. But the three that I happened to ask questions about, I was not satisfied with the answers I got, and arts council officials I talked to know about that.”

Hytner, who is a well-known supporter of the principle of an arts council and does not endorse in direct government funding, added that the retirement of ACE’s current chairman could be a new start of the arts council. He explained: “It is an opportunity for new strong imaginative leadership for the arts council to get good at strategy, because that is the one thing it is not doing well.”

However, he said he believes it was crucial that the new chair be an arts practitioner. He also called on ACE to “have a good look at what the regional offices are up to”, highlighting the disparity in funding criteria across different areas of the country.