Mary Allen, Secretary-General of the Arts Council of England
writes on the 24th March 1996 to the
Sunday Times.
Come September 1997, Mary Allen whose current job is deciding budgets, including lottery monies, for large arts outfits, is to become the chief executive of the Royal Opera House which carries a large overdraft.
Is it a case of gamekeeper turned poacher, and will it mean that the Opera will get, to a greater degree, the resources it asks for?
Will her replacement at ACE be sympathetic to Traditional jazz? Contact with him up until today (1/8/97) shows that he does seem fair in his treatment.
(Graham Devlin is Acting Secretary-General).
The following letter still stands.
The crisis John Harlow reports to be looming over the raising of partnership funding for National Lottery projects is somewhat over-played.
From the beginning, the Arts Council has required only 10% of the costs for projects under £100,000, and 25% for those over.
Partnership funding not only includes cash donations from private or public sources, but also support-in-kind such as donations of land, buildings, material or equipment, and voluntary labour. We will also take into account an agreement to support the everyday running costs of a project after completion.
We are looking into potential difficulties surrounding partnership funding, and are in touch with recipients of larger grants to ensure that targets for fundraising, set by the organisations, are met. We believe the principle of partnership funding is important in order to ensure that projects have the support of their community.
See comments below.
Well well now! Our application for £1.5m to co-ordinate support for all Tradional jazz clubs in England was first lodged with
The Arts Council Of England (ACE)
on 11/5/95, that is to say, over a year ago - 15/6/96 - to date. After a number of turned-down requests seeking meetings with her officials, as far as Kings Jazz Review is concerned, such statements run counter to the treatment that we have received from the Secretary-General's department.
It has become obvious as the rules keep changing, larger grant applications are not being considered on a level playing field.
On the 4th of April 1996 we were notified that our submission was not worthy of approval, with a warning that we should not re-submit our application until 3rd of April 1997, (re-submitted on 28/3/97) because it did not satisfy on any of the 8 criteria in the guidance to applicants. This conflicts with an earlier statement we received from the Council.
The Jazitoria 8 Criteria are printed here for all to pass judgement on. They were created as a result of enrolling in an (ACE) fee paying course of study.
To save England from further embarrassment, I guess that I'll have to ask all Traditional jazz clubs to submit separate forms to ACE asking for £6,000 each, Editorial and if they find it too much of a hassle filling in the form, I'll offer to do it for them, that is, without the need to go on a course of study to do so. (This advice holds good today, that is, the 1st of August, 1997). Funny, it's £1.5m, so the figures do add up. Keep jazzin'
Ian King
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