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Arts venues face closure under funding cuts, says theatre boss
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent6 Oct 2010
The head of the National Theatre today issued the starkest warning to date of how cuts to arts funding could destroy Britain's cultural life.
Sir Nicholas Hytner, an award-winning director who has seen his own venue's turnover double in the past eight years, warned that regional and fringe institutions would simply close if “swingeing” cuts were imposed.
His comments, in the theatre's annual report, come just a day after Tate boss Sir Nicholas Serota said the Coalition's planned “blitzkrieg” threatened a cultural life created over decades.
With days to go before the spending review, the National chief welcomed the Government's commitment to encouraging philanthropy but said short-term cuts would cause long-term pain.
“Nobody in the British arts world would turn up their noses at the kind of tax breaks offered in America where billions of dollars flow annually not to the Internal Revenue Service but to cultural institutions, channelled by a small cadre of wealthy individuals.”
But he said it remained to be seen whether the British Treasury would swallow a reduction in tax revenue on the American scale. He added that British institutions were adept at paying their own way but said arts philanthropy was not easy.
Thirty years ago, 60 per cent of the National's income came from the state but that figure is now down to 30 per cent. Its Arts Council grant this year was £19.3 million.
Last year its hit play, The Habit Of Art by Alan Bennett, took £2 million at the box office and the West End transfer of War Horse a further £13.2 million. It raised another £6 million in sponsorship and donations.
Sir Nicholas goes on to say that big companies find it easier to attract backers but that they “are utterly dependent on today's fringe for tomorrow's greatest talents”.
It came as Arts and Business published a report today saying there is potential for boosting arts funding through legacies. However chief executive Colin Tweedy said: “It is important to stress that in no way will a growth in private-sector funding in the short or medium-term compensate for cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent.”
In 2008, individual giving grew by 25 per cent to a record £382 million but fell by 7 per cent to £363 million last year.
