Arts Council cuts ICA funding, adds Tyneside Cinema and Berwick festival

Last year, the DCMS announced last year that the money it gives to ACE would drop by 29.6% over four years, going down from £452m to £350m. (The DCMS is also the government arm that abolished the UK Film Council to instead work through the BFI and Film London.)

A total of 1,333 organisations applied for funding, but only 695 will get backing. That includes 110 new groups that hadn’t been funded by ACE before. Under the last funding round, 849 groups were supported.

The London-based Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), which includes a cinema, took a 42% cut to a grant of £900,000 annually. West London’s Riverside Studios is expected to lose all its ACE funding, as is digital media festival onedotzero and London-based training company Four Corners.

Film London has confirmed ACE’s continued support of the FLAMIN programme for moving image artists, although that amount of funding will dip 11% in real terms. For the first two years, the amount will be £320,049 and the third year will be £335,923.

Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London, said: “It is terrific news that Arts Council England has awarded Film London funding to continue our unique and innovative support for the capital’s moving image artists. Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) has established itself as a leader in discovering, nurturing and developing fantastic talent in the capital and having our funding confirmed for another three years is credit to our achievements to date.”

Multi-arts venue Watershed in Bristol (home to a cinema as well as festivals including Encounters), will get at £740,000+ in each of the three years, up more than 100% from previous funding levels.

Dick Penny, MD of Watershed, said: “This is very good news for Watershed and for Bristol. It reinforces Bristol’s unique position as a centre for creative digital innovation, and it gives Watershed the support to develop its expertise as a national producer of cultural ideas and talent. At this time of economic turmoil it is essential that we continue to invest in artistic innovation and new talent.”

New recipients of funding include the Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (getting £50,000 annually) and Newcastle’s Tyneside Cinema, getting more than £120,000 per year.

Those partially involved in film receiving funding also include The Arbor backers Artangel (+19.3%); Marc Boothe’s B3 Media (-15.5%); and Barbican Centre (+108.7%).

Liz Forgan, chair of Arts Council England, said that ACE had taken “the brave path of strategic choices not salami slices, which means some painful decisions”.