£100,000 cut from Lancashire County Council arts fund (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

£100,000 cut from Lancashire County Council arts fund

9:11am Wednesday 2nd January 2013 in News

ARTS projects funding from Lancashire County Council has been slashed by £100,000 for 2013/14.

Arts groups will be able to bid for a share of the cash from January 7 to February 18, with decisions made by the end of March.

Paul Kelly, arts development manager at the county council, said: “The reduction in funding has now been confirmed as £100,000. This will leave an arts budget of £326,000 for 2012/13.

“Of this amount, £277,107 has already been allocated within the two-year grant offers made in 2012/13.”

However, around £5,000 which went unallocated from 2012/13 has been added to the budget, and funding for the Lancashire Sinfonietta has ended, leaving a total of almost £200,000.

Mr Kelly said: “The budget for Lancashire Sinfonietta in 2012/13 was £144,000. However, now it is an independent organisation this budget will now beamalgamated with arts development, and not ring-fenced.”