London orchestra recovers 75% of lost Arts Council grant

The London Sinfonietta has posted an assessment of its financial situation:

We can now share that the London Sinfonietta has successfully applied to ACE’s Transform programme, which seeks to help organisations whose funding was reduced to make changes to their business model.

We will receive an additional £468,681 over three years: c.75% of the grant we lost. Some of this will be spent on underwriting existing short and mid-term commitments… By 2026, our ACE funding will shrink to the £300,000 per year offered in November (a 41% cut to our previous £508,757 per annum).

The Sinfonietta makes a telling criticism of the growing distance between ACE and the arts it funds:
Despite ACE’s intentions (and no doubt some excellent people), its ideologies and administrative demands are creating distance between it and those who make the art happen – the very people who can help ACE make the case to government. There is potential weakening in what could be a powerful, collaborative relationship between ACE and the sector it funds.

So true.

The whole process has been fatally flawed. The Arts Council giveth, the Arts Council taketh away…. millions of pounds are wasted in barely comprehensible bureaucratic procedures, wich are then reversed. All that results is a complete loss of trust in ACE.

If its CEO had an ounce of honour, he would take responsibility and resign.