Despite calling on Baroness Genista McIntosh to review its decision making processes, the Arts Council appears determined to have its funding decision examined in court. Watermans is the second organisation to apply for judicial review of an Arts Council funding decision, following the application by the Union Dance Company last week.

Watermans' decision to apply to the court comes only after the Arts Council repeatedly refused to discuss with Watermans any possibility of compromise or ways in which funding might be continued.

Karam Bhuller, Chair of Watermans said "This action has not been taken lightly. It is an expensive and disruptive process which will cost money and time that would otherwise be available to spend on programming for the community. It is iniquitous that the Arts Council's failure to do things properly, and intransigence when faced with its incompetence, should result in a charitable body like Watermans having to spend its scarce funds to get justice"

Watermans has just revealed record Cinema attendances for the year just ended in March 2008, when both Ticket Sales and Box Office Income were over 10% higher than a year earlier.

ABOUT WATERMANS

Watermans is a popular multi-disciplinary arts centre in Brentford, West London. It was opened in 1984 and has received support from the Arts Council for over 15 years. Watermans' Arts Council funding has supported Asian, New Media and Participative Arts. Recent work that Watermans commissioned has been short-listed for inclusion in the leading Digital Media exhibition in Europe, Prix Ars Electronica 2008.

Watermans attracts funding from Hounslow Council, London Councils, The Baring Foundation, the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, and the UK Film Council, among others. Its' main funding was, until 31 March 2008, from the Arts Council.

To support Watermans visit www.watermans.org.uk

WIELDING THE AXE INDISCRIMINATELY

The withdrawal of funding, or "disinvestment" as the Arts Council prefers to call it, also seems indiscriminate. Withdrawing funds from two of the most established practitioners in Asian Arts - Watermans is the defacto leading venue for non-English language theatre, dance, comedy and new media events and Tara Arts has over 30 years experience in producing groundbreaking Asian-influenced theatre - goes contrary to the Council's assertion for wanting to drive "excellence in arts" and empowering "artistic risk". Diverting funds from established practitioners able to deliver in favour of new, un-tried arts bodies seems contrary to the Arts Council's aims.

Click here for further details about the Arts Council Funding decision.

PRIME MINISTER TAKES 'ARM'S LENGTH' APPROACH

The Prime Minister responded one of the biggest online petitions that stated "we the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to support the industry by joining the growing band of people who have no confidence in The Arts Council."

The petition read "Nearly 200 arts organisations, including 37 theatre companies, have been told they are to lose all revenue funding from Arts Council England, in the bloodiest cull in ACE's 61-year history. The move to axe subsidy completely from 195 organisations, for most from April 2008, is leading to threats of closure and redundancies across the country. Not only will this deprive many areas of any cultural output but also ghettoise diversity and create a more divided and less integrated society when this public money should be doing the opposite."

The Prime Minster said in reply "It is a long standing principle that the Arts Council operates at arm's length from the Government and levels of funding for individual arts organisations are entirely for them. It is exactly this arm's length principle that ensures that the arts in this country are not subject to political interference.

Arts Council England wrote to arts organisations in December 2007 about its future funding plans and received 126 letters from those organisations in response. Following discussions with the organisations and further deliberation, Arts Council England revised its funding proposals for 17 organisations at the beginning of February 2008 announced its funding plans for the next 3 years, which included bringing over 80 new organisations into the portfolio.

The arts change and grow and it is right that the Arts Council's regularly funded portfolio should reflect this, and should make room for new ideas, new people and new talent to develop and succeed. The Government would not want them simply to fund the same organisations year after year, at the same levels.

Supporting excellence and innovation were central themes in Sir Brian McMaster's recent review 'Supporting Excellence in the Arts', which looked at strategic issues of how to best support artistic excellence. The Arts Council will be considering the implications of McMaster in the longer term.

This Government has a proud record of support for the arts, and we announced in October last year that grant in aid funding for Arts Council England will rise to £467m by 2010/11 - an increase of 3.3% above inflation over the next 3 years. This support has allowed the sector to thrive. Audiences have increased, arts education programmes have expanded and the outstanding quality of our arts is widely recognised."

Watermans will now await the outcome of the judicial review.