ARTS FUNDING: RHYME BUT NO REASON

31-07-2007

Lynn Hawthorne has discovered an astonishing discrepancy in the amount of arts spending in Sandwell compared to Birmingham. Is it a culture of inequality - or an inequality of culture?

Married to a starving poet (well, he would be if he had to survive financially from writing and performing), the subject of arts funding and grants is often a hot topic of conversation in our household.

While ‘names’ can command 4-figure fees for a couple of hours in a theatre or get themselves onto the ‘bestseller’ lists because their publishing company has a ‘deal’ with a large book shop chain, most amateur artists/writers/poets/sculptors/actors/singers/photographers parade their talents for the love of it rather than hard cash.

This isn’t because they’re not good enough, but because the money simply doesn’t follow them.

There is an awful lot of talent out there in the West Midlands, it just needs a little help in terms of promotion.

The 2005/6 annual report for Arts Council England showed that while Brummies got the average of £2.73 per head spent on them, Sandwell (where I live) got a measly 17p.

So why is there such a discrepancy?

OK, Birmingham is a large city, densely-populated with an ethnically-diverse mix. But so is any other conurbation.

So where do we start this comparison?

Let’s start cynically: is it because the Arts Council has its regional office in Birmingham city centre and that’s where most of its officers live?

Is there a belief that, in order to be creative, you must live in a city, like London or Birmingham?

Is it because Birmingham is easy to find on a map, whereas Sandwell is a metropolitan myth?

Is it because Brummies are naturally more skilled when it comes to sourcing funding?

I have heard that there are people in the bowels of the City Council to whom you can turn for assistance in writing funding bids, so success is much more likely.

In Sandwell, I know of no such officers, so any artist or group is on their own, shooting in the dark and hoping they hit the target required by such august bodies as the Arts Council.

Having helped to write bids in the past on behalf of charitable groups, the language is particularly vital and comes much easier to those ‘in the know’.

Or is it because Birmingham is much more supportive of its natives, whereas Sandwell is happy to import and buy in ‘expertise’?

Is it because Birmingham is not publicity shy, compared with Sandwell, a borough that likes to keep things secret?

I ask this merely because there are two initiatives currently operating in Sandwell of which the council tax-paying public is, largely, blissfully unaware.

One is a ‘talking heads’ DVD where inhabitants of each of the six towns of Sandwell are asked for their opinions on life in that particular town.

When the independent filmmakers (lovely people, but not Midlanders) came to Wednesbury, hardly anyone knew they were there because it hadn’t been publicised. Again.

The other is a ‘community project’, except I haven’t yet found any member of the community who is involved.

No doubt, it will not involve those of us who work and so are not around during working hours.

As usual, we miss out on all the fun and enjoyment of learning new skills and mixing with different people and working on behalf of the town in a creative way.

Would it be the same in Birmingham, I ask myself?

Sandwell has, of course, been embroiled for a number of years in the farce that is The Public.

Millions of pounds of council tax and lottery money have been poured into a building that has yet to find a useful function and even open.

But that has been spent on a building and hasn’t got anywhere near supporting local artists and community groups who desperately need a platform for their talents.

I know of local arts groups that tried repeatedly to get onto the mailing list or to have a look round and failed.

I am also aware that amongst the staff inside that pink shell it was hard to locate a Midlands accent.

When will Sandwell realise that they don’t necessarily have to search ‘abroad’ for skills and expertise when we have it here already home-grown?

The Arts Council is, however, beginning to change its funding policy and withdrawing funding from organisations that ‘shouldn’t’ need it, like Poetry London magazine whose funding will cease in 2008, and re-distributing it to bodies previously ignored.

Let’s hope that this is the start of a new vision for the Midlands and that all local boroughs will feature more fairly in the funding rounds, with officers more actively seeking opportunities to be supportive and nurturing.