Arts Council seems distinctly un-excellent…

In Piccadilly Circus this lunchtime, under an apocalyptic grey sky and wearing plain white face masks to evoke the classical symbol of the dramatic trade, a ‘flashmob’ of hundreds of actors, directors and stage professionals gathered on the steps of Eros to silently express their continued grievance with the Arts Council of England (ACE). Today marks the last day of possible appeal for those unlucky arts organizations who were slapped with the shock news just before Christmas that, despite a recent fifty-million pound boost from the DCMS to ACE coffers, they would be losing some or all of their subsidies. These unfortunate organizations, who include in their number London’s much-loved Bush and Orange Tree theatres, were given just over a month to appeal – much of which was taken up with the non-weeks of Christmas and New Year – despite ACE giving them no indication of why they had lost their funding, or what criteria had been employed in the decision-making process.