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Historic gems threatened by halving of Lottery funds
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent24.03.09
Britain's historic landscapes and buildings are under threat after severe funding cuts, the new chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund warns today.
In her first interview since being appointed, Jenny Abramsky said there was a danger of returning to the perilous situation of the past when gems were neglected to the point of destruction.
Dame Jenny said: "We're now having to turn down really important projects because we don't have the money.
"Fewer of those really big projects that have made an extraordinary difference to the fabric of our built heritage will be done. We will see a build-up of problems with the heritage sector because there are very few places for them to go for funding."
After money was taken from the HLF to pay for the Olympic Games and the fund lost interest on its balances under changes to lottery legislation, it is today half what was distributed five years ago - £180million per year against £362.7million in 2004-05.
The board is meeting today to discuss applications for the mid-range awards of between £2million and £5million. At the last meeting in December, only four out of 16 applications were successful. Losers included the Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge, the development of Ditchling Museum in West Sussex and plans to mark the life of Benjamin Britten at Aldeburgh.
Major projects such as the refurbishment of the Whitechapel Gallery with £3.7 million of lottery funds, the renovation of the Museum of London with £11.6 million and the new medieval and renaissance galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum with £9.75 million will be much less likely to be supported in future.
Dame Jenny, formerly the BBC's director of audio and music, said: "We've still got to get across that heritage is not about toffs. And is not about putting something in aspic. We need to get people to understand that heritage has an economic value," attracting tourism, for example. "At a time of recession, it would be a tragedy if people think heritage is a luxury we don't need.
"A lot of institutions we enjoy would not be able to do the things they're doing without money from the Lottery."
Reader views (2)
A state lottery is a pretty weird way of funding culture; quite apart from the morality of taxing the poor, desperate or gullible to provide public amenities, every successful bid means that large sums have been spent on unsuccessful ones. This rewards the class of consultants and bid-drafters who have sprung into existence, but hoovers up the budget, possibly not accidentally. Then there's the question of what culture is: if it needs state subsidy to survive, it's state-approved culture, isn't it? Can you imagine the Sex Pistols getting funding when they started out? Now that punk is middle-aged, it probably does. The concept of a cutting-edge pensioner is an oxymoron: the subsidy always guides the output one way or another. But if it creates a post for Jenny Abramsky it can't be all bad: presumably she's only drawing half a salary now the pot is half the size?
- Mdj E10, london uk
Unfortunately our heritage will continue to lose out for generations to come - as lottery funding is "squandered" on olympic venues which no-one apart from Coe and a few other "has beens" who see the games as one last chance to bring their photograps back onto our front pages, even if only for the duration of the games. All future funding will be drastically cut as we are going to be left with a debt of catastrophic proportions and more lottery money will no doubt be needed - as well as massive tax increases. ROLL ON THE GENERAL ELECTION
- R.F., Yorks, UK
