The latest report from the completely useless and entirely ineffectual Department of Culture Media and Sport select committee arrives at conclusions that several hundred thousand people came to many years ago. ACE for the most part, is a bit rubbish. Unfortunately this latest report focuses on things that happened so long go that the funding […]
A couple of weeks ago when we were writing ‘So Now What?’, our piece on the ludicrous salaries for various men in suits at the Royal Opera House we turned, naturally enough, to Dance UK for comment. Lest you be unaware Dance UK, in their own words are; “… the national voice for dance. [They […]
You would have thought that large scale arts organisations would have learned not to let TV cameras roam about at will through their murky innards. The Royal Opera House took that lesson to heart many years ago when a BBC documentary made them look like the worlds biggest collection of overpaid buffoons in the history […]
Arts Council England (ACE) has expressed confidence that it can adequately assess all of the applications it has received for the new National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding programme. When the deadline closed on January 24th for the NPO programme the funding monolith had received 1,333 applications from organisations across all art forms. Arts organisations will […]
The State of the Arts conference, held last week, was a ridiculous waste of time and money, mainly because those taking part were pretty ridiculous. We sincerely hope it was only the inarticulate, rambling, “couldn’t make a point if their life depended on it” people that got to speak or ask questions because if not […]
Yesterday’s ‘State of the Arts’ was so utterly pointless we won’t bore you with any details, they’re aren’t any in case you were wondering. One of the attendees though was Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, allegedly. Mr Vaizey is featured in the Guardian today saying a lot but, as per his job description, not doing […]
Here in TheLab™ we think somebody needs to explain why Northern Ballet’s new building looks like the Jawa transporter from Star Wars. Is this the beginning of an invasion from tiny monks with LED lights for eyes or is the company’s new building, also home to Phoenix, really a miniature stolen from the Lucasfilm Special […]
“We are prepared to take our fair share of the pain associated with the Coalition’s financial policies.” We don’t know who Chris Monks AD of Stephen Joseph Theatre is, we’re sure he’s a nice guy and all that but the quote made above in response to the cuts being proposed by North Yorkshire County Council […]
Here in TheLab™ we have been mulling for a week or so about whether or not to write this piece. We have to do it every year and, to be honest, it’s getting old. We are of course referring to the National Dance Awards. These awards are presented by The Critics Circle (TCC), pretty soon […]
In a fit of pique Arts Council England (ACE) has decided, against all reasonable measures of sanity, to award Rambert Dance Company £7Million toward the cost of their new building in London. The same funding organisation that cut all RFO funding by 6.9% because that was the quick and easy option has apparently found millions […]