News on Arts Council England funding
Dartington has today been informed that it will not receive funding from Arts Council England (ACE) as one of the National Portfolio Organisations.
The Arts have been a central part of Dartington’s work over the past 80 years and despite this disappointing news Dartington remains committed to delivering an arts programme to ensure our audiences can continue to enjoy events at Dartington and that artists can still come here to make work.
David Francis, Director of Arts at Dartington, explained: “ACE funding is secure until March 2012 so there will be no immediate impact to the programme. Over the course of the next year we will review how we deliver the arts programme at Dartington and the type of work we present. What is clear is that existing elements of our programme such as the Barn Cinema and the International Summer School will continue and we will plan to continue to build our new initiatives such as Space, our new multi-discipline creative development centre, and the Home festival of acoustic music”.
The Arts Council funding represented approximately one third of the arts budget, with earned income and other funding sources providing the full budget.
Whilst there is no doubt that this decision will have a very significant impact for our work, our audiences and partners, the fact that Dartington will not be a National Portfolio Organisation means that other ACE funding opportunities open up, such as the Grants for the Arts Funds programme. We will also be actively seeking funding from individual philanthropists to support our work.
This decision does not affect Dartington’s national and international work in the fields of sustainability and social justice.