Current Productions BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL CUT SHOW OF STRENGTH
…BUT YOU CAN STOP IT. READ ON…
On Thursday 31 July the cabinet of Bristol City Council will meet to ratify an officer recommendation that all funding to Show Of Strength should be cut completely from 30 September. We were told on 1 July, the day after our show TRADE IT? got four stars in The Guardian.
Three weeks later, despite repeated requests for information, we still have no idea why this decision was taken or by whom.
Our funding was only £11,700 a year – a tiny amount for what we deliver. We requested more, as did many organisations who applied, because the amount Bristol puts into the arts is so far below other comparable cities.
If the decision is confirmed on 31 July we will then be told why -and given just two weeks to appeal. The first two weeks of August. Neither of SOS’s two part time producers can attend the Cabinet meeting or make an appeal as they are taking their first holidays since Christmas. We have made a request under the Freedom Of Information Act for all material relating to the decision to cut us, and for the report of our review meeting with the council in November. When we asked for the latter in April, to inform our funding application (the one that’s been rejected with no explanation), we were told ‘you need to assume that we did not have major concerns or issues that needed addressing urgently with your organisation’ and that reports of review meetings were ‘internal confidential reports as requested by the consultant.’
All in all we think this isn’t cricket. And the more people that think the same, and say so, the better.
So please write to the Leader of the Council
helen.holland@bristol.gov.uk
and copy in the Cabinet Member for Culture:
rosalie.walker@bristol.gov.uk
We suggest keeping it really simple, something like this:
“I/we question the decision to cut Show Of Strength’s funding without giving a reason. Given the lack of information, and the fact that the process appears to have been deeply flawed, I/we strongly recommend the cabinet rejects the recommendation on 31 July and reinstates Show Of Strength as one of Bristol’s Key Arts Providers with a 3 year funding agreement.”
Letters of support to us are welcome as we also need Arts Council funding, and that’s more difficult if your local authority has just turned you down:
info@showofstrength.org.uk