Welsh National Opera ‘disappointed’ as it has its funding cut by Arts Council England
The Welsh National Opera is to have its funding cut by Arts Council England, it was announced today.
The opera company based in Cardiff will have its annual allowance cut by a third to £4 million. It is partly funded by the Arts Council England as it performs in Bristol, Liverpool, Birmingham, Southampton and Oxford as well as Wales.
It is also funded by £4.5m by the Arts Council of Wales and around 10% of its annual income comes from fundraising.
WNO employs over 250 people ranging from artists, craftspeople, technicians and administrators, based at the Wales Millennium Centre.
A spokesperson told Classic FM: “Whilst we are grateful for Arts Council England’s continued support, we are disappointed by the announcement today that we will receive a substantial cut to our funding.
“We fully appreciate the pressures that ACE themselves are facing, but as we experience rising costs and reduced income in the current challenging economic climate, we will need to review the impact of this decision on the delivery of our services in England in light of the announcement.”
Arts Council England also announced funding cuts to English National Opera, Glyndebourne Productions Ltd and the Royal Opera House.
Sir Nick Serota, chair of Arts Council England, made the announcement on a live stream, saying: “The position was made relatively clear when the Secretary of State instructed us to take money out of London… and encouraged us to take money from central London to some parts of the city that haven’t previously had funding.
“It was almost inevitable that we would have to take some money away form some of the main theatres in London. We’ve simply had to make some very invidious choices.”
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Reason eight million-sixty-two thousand and ninety-four for why we should not be tied to that barbaric country any longer.
Take the money accept the consequences. That’s what you get when you serve two masters.
It looks like this is less Arts Council England disproportionately cutting in Cymru (not ALL our neighbours have it in for us) and more EVERYBODY getting shafted by Mordor incompetence. The solution is Cymru owning tax revenues generated in Cymru so we are self funding. Mordor cannot be trusted. Imagine if they did not spend BILLIONS of our money renovating the old ruin with the bell next the Thames.
Although WNO is completely right to review their delivery of shows in England in light of this.
We need to get away from being reliant on money from across the bridge because so often it’s not coming or not coming at the level which is required/would be seen as fair if all things are equal.
Would anyone like to organise a group booking to The Welsh National Opera?
The fact is that funding is being cut in both Wales and England. I have a suspicion that funding is being cut because opera is considered too white and priveleged and that the money will be spent on diversity and inclusion projects.
DO you? You really think the money is being spent on Diversity and Inclusion projects? Would that it were! as always the money is going to sort out the fiscal disaster that 12 years of Tory idiocy and Brexit brought us. I&D projects are needed because the Brexiteer disaster has revealed that approximately 52.4% of Britons are hateful bigots. The aggression shown to BLM and #metoo and now the visceral attacks on trans rights BY this Tory government and various hate groups, shows that this foul attitude persists. But no. It’s going to pay off Tory loans and bribes. One… Read more »