Anger at revelation arts venues in region have received lowest support in the whole country
Arts in the West Midlands received the lowest grant support in the country, it was revealed today.
Dozens of venues and organisations across the region received nearly £17 million from the Government’s £257 million Cultural Recovery Fund (CRF), with grants aimed at helping them survive the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the figure – which equated to £2.86 per person – was the lowest amount of nine regions in the country.
London organisations were given £87m – £9.71 per capita, while in the South West £26.6m was handed out, at £4.72 per head.
In the East Midlands it was still higher, with grants equating to £3.55 per person handed out.
Venues across the West Midlands, including theatres, concert halls and galleries, were forced to close once again due to Covid-19.
Pat McFadden, the Shadow City Minister, said the level of grant support for the West Midlands appeared to go against Boris Johnson’s pledge to “level up” the country.
The Wolverhampton South East MP said: “So much for levelling up.
"The West Midlands arts and cultural sector needs help like everywhere else. Our venues can’t operate and thousands of jobs are on the line.”
Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton, Stafford Gatehouse Theatre and the Birmingham Royal Ballet are among the venues to receive grants so far, with further tranches of funding for larger venues and organisations still to be announced as part of the CRF.
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra also received £843,000.
A spokesperson from Arts Council England said: "The Culture Recovery Fund announcement made on Monday was for applicants to Round 1 for under £1m and therefore does not show a complete picture of the final overall investment into the West Midlands from this vital Government funding.
"This scheme was open to applications and designed to help protect the existing cultural sector from this terrible pandemic.
"Without the outcomes of the other Culture Recovery Funds rounds and repayable finance scheme, it is not possible to see the overall investment picture across the country."
Many have been left asking if our great venues are playing second fiddle to London.
Of that near-£17m handed out, £6.2m has been given to 39 groups in the Black Country and Birmingham.
A total of £1.24m has been handed to eight businesses in Shropshire, while across Staffordshire, five groups in Lichfield, Cannock, Stafford and South Staffordshire received around £1.2m.
It is hardly surprising that recipients, including Cannock’s Prince of Wales Theatre, Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton, and Albert’s Shed in Telford – have welcomed the funding with open arms.
After all, there is a strong argument for the cultural sector being the hardest hit by the pandemic, with venues forced to close when the first major lockdown was announced back in March.
Many are not planning to reopen until next year, and the grants received will help them to keep their heads above water until punters can finally return through their doors.
Yet across the whole region, the Arts Council funding equates to just £2.86 per head, the lowest figure in the country and way behind the nation’s capital, where £9.71 per person has been handed out.
In fact, of the 1,385 organisations to be awarded cash so far, a third of them are in London, where 34 per cent of the CRF funding total of £257m has been allocated.
They included Belgrade Theatre, which received just under the maximum amount allowed of £1m, and the Soho Theatre company, which got around £900,000.
Arts Council England points out that more funding announcements are to come – including some of the bigger cash awards – and that we have not yet got a complete picture of how the money has been distributed nationally.
Labour figures in the West Midlands have seized on the disparity as evidence Whitehall is not sticking to its own much-heralded “levelling up” agenda.
Critics have also pointed to a perceived lack of support for live music venues, with a disproportionately high amount of funding going to theatres and non-musical organisations.
According to analysis from the Birmingham Live Music Project (BLMP), live music organisations in the Second City have benefitted from just two per cent of the first round of CRF cash.
Dr Patrycja Rozbicka said: “As anticipated, across all 28 music organisations to receive a CRF award in Birmingham, only a few are venues or organisations which have a dedicated and primary focus on live music.
“Out of 197 live music venues active on the scene in Birmingham before the lockdown, only an estimated six per cent have received funding in the scheme.
“Across 1,385 theatres, museums, music venues and cultural organisations that will receive help from CRF across the whole country, only 28 businesses or organisations in Birmingham benefit, to the tune of £5,285,771.
“Birmingham is the second largest city after London, yet secured just two per cent of the funding available.”
The BLMP has warned that without financial support many live music venues in the city may not survive the pandemic.
