Image: jk5854 through Creative Commons

As many predicted, the UK’s arts budget is to be cut. Arts Council England’s budget will be slashed by 4% on top of an already announced in-year cut of £4m which makes the total cut they’ll receive 5%. The ACE are, unsurprisingly, not happy. They point to the fact that their running costs only amount to 5% of the money they receive through grants, the rest going straight to fund artistic projects meaning that they can’t make up this cut through greater efficiency or internal changes. It will thus have to be taken from the money which goes towards projects which means artists will soon be effected. More worryingly still there are likely to be even more severe cuts due in the autumn.

The question here though is not just about cuts versus no cuts (given the country’s economic position it’s understandable that most departments will be affected by plans to reduce spending) but whether it is the arts which will suffer more. Have the arts been unfairly targeted? And then the next issue is how these cuts should be implemented for the least negative impact. There’s already some debate on the latter question here.

Cuts to arts funding has been apopular topic on CenSta before. So, I open up the discussion here again. What are your thoughts on the latest cuts to arts funding?  And where should we see these cuts from? Are there inefficiencies which can be ironed out as a first port of call? Hit the comments button below.