More grant gloom for Coliseum

£37,000 slashed by Arts Council
Oldham Coliseum has had seven per cent slashed from its Arts Council grant.

Yesterday the Chronicle reported that arts organisations supported by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), including the Fairbottom Street theatre, are braced for a grant freeze and possible cuts.

Now the Arts Council England has announced 6.9 per cent cuts on average next year, meaning the Coliseum loses £37,418.

Peshkar, Oldham’s award-winning ethnic theatre company, will lose £5,585.

This year the Coliseum’s Arts Council grant was £542,290, and next year it will be £504,866.

But theatre executive director David Martin says the Coliseum was expecting the cut would be 10 per cent, adding: “It could have been better but it could have been worse.

“We have been meeting with the Arts Council for several months, and they told all their regularly-funded clients to expect 10 per cent cuts, so we have been expecting this news.

“We are now putting together our budget for next year in co-operation with other venues, places we already have working relationships with, like Ipswich and Harrogate.

“To cut production costs, our joint productions tended to be only two shows a year, now they will be three or four, which will certainly absorb that loss from the Arts Council.”

Ticket prices for some categories of customers are also likely to rise, but they will be protected for some categories such as poorer people or the vulnerable, he said.

Overall, the Arts Council has announced a 6.9 per cent reduction in funds next year, rising to 15 per cent by 2015. AGMA will meet tomorrow to decide on cuts to arts organisations.

Bodies funded by AGMA’s discretionary grants have already been warned there will be a freeze on grants in 2010-11, and possible cuts the following year.

Both the Coliseum and Peshkar receive AGMA support.