Arts organisations across the UK have been waiting in anticipation this week, to hear what the Arts Council had to say about who was going to continue to receive funding, who may have to take a reduction in funding, and who has been cut out of the picture all together.
It was clear that the decisions were going to be tough. Last October, the Arts Council had £100million cut from it's budget, and since then has received 1,333 applications for grants. The Council made it clear that they were not going to have a policy of taking a cut from everybody's budget; they said that there were going to assess each case in isolation, and only continue to award funding to "excellent organisations and exceptional individual talent."
That being the case, 695 of the 1,333 applications have been granted some level of funding, with 110 of those being new groups, that have not been funded by the Council before. 206 of the organisations that were receiving regular funding from the Arts Council have been cut out of the equation completely, and left to fend for themselves.
Organisations that have lost out include, the Leeds-based Norther Ballet, which had it's funding cut by a quarter, and the Derby Theatre and Northcott Theatre have been cut out completely.
The Institute of Contemporary Art in London lost out by 37% and The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Opera North are all seeing cuts of around 6.6%.
Organisations to come out in a much better position were the Young Vic which was up by 15.8%, Northern Stage saw an increase of 19.6%, the Chichester Festival Theatre saw their grant increase by 10.1% and the Whitechapel Gallery will benefit from a rise of 25.3%.
Given the current situation, the Government has pledged to spend an extra £80million in lottery money from 2013, with a fair amount of that money going to encourage touring companies, and work with children and young people.
Full facts and figures about the changes in the Arts Councils funding portfolio, can be viewed on the
Arts Councils website.