Arts Council England is tripling the number of ethnic minority-led organisations it funds in the next three years as part of an overhaul of its grants programme.
Big-name beneficiaries including the Royal Opera House will have their funding cut as ACE endeavours to invest more money in the arts outside London.
Today ACE announced that 990 organisations would receive a share of £446m a year for 2023-26.
That includes 148 charities and other arts organisations led by black, Asian and ethnically diverse artists, up from 53 BAME-led bodies when grants were last allocated in 2018.
The money funds charities to help deliver ACE’s three-year strategy and to work together as a network of arts bodies.
ACE originally promised to reveal its funding decisions last month and was criticised after postponing the announcement at short notice without explanation.
Charities that have lost ACE funding said they were devastated by the decision, including the Royal Opera House, whose grant was cut by nearly 20 per cent in real terms.
ACE is spending £152m in London, which remains the best-funded region of the country, but said that 20 per cent more funding was now going to charities outside the capital.
It claimed this funding would boost the government’s levelling up agenda, by which ministers want to redistribute support to areas of England with poorer economic indicators.
This funding includes backing for the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, a festival linked to Blackpool Illuminations and a grant for Mansfield Council to support the area’s library and theatre.
Wigan-based theatre The Old Court will receive just over £1m in the next three years and said the funding would help the charity “reaffirm Wigan as a vibrant, relevant and aspirational centre of arts and culture”.
But Centrala, a gallery in Birmingham that works with eastern European artists, lost its ACE grant, which it described on Twitter as “disappointing and devastating news”.
ACE’s funding to the Royal Opera House fell from £24.4m to £22.3m, which ROH said represented a real-term cut of 19 per cent.
The ROH added: “We support the wish to invest in the arts across the country, and warmly welcome all new entrants to ACE’s national portfolio.
“Nonetheless, we face significant financial challenges going forward, alongside our colleagues in the sector: sharply increased energy costs, rising inflation in material costs, and suppressed box-office revenue as tourism recovers from the pandemic.”
Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: “Thanks to this new government funding package, spreading more money to more communities than ever before, people living in areas from Wolverhampton to Wigan and Crawley to Chesterfield will now get to benefit from the deep economic and social rewards culture can bring.
“We continue to support our icons such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Shakespeare Company, but today’s announcement will see organisations in places all too often overlooked get the support they need to transform access to the arts for everyone – no matter where they live.”