Save Visual Art in Leicester: November 2010

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Links for info

Save Visual Art in Leicester

Save Visual Art in Leicester

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41053.html <-- online petition.

Petition against the plans to permanently close The City Gallery in Leicester and reduce all public contemporary art provision in the city to just 13.3% of it’s current levels.

A report has been submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, of Leicester City Council, prior the their meeting on 7^th December with a recommendation to: “Integrate contemporary visual art services within the exhibition programme and overall offer at New Walk Museum and Art Gallery.”

These plans permanently close The City Gallery, provide a radically reduced (financially by 86.7%) contemporary visual art exhibition & education programme for Leicester and loose around £126,909 of inward investment from Arts Council England per year.

Details of these plans can be found here: http://www.cabinet.leicester.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=23614

We object to these cuts to services and seek clarification as to why:

· The options do not include a continuation of the current provision of exhibitions by City Gallery staff based at New Walk Museum, nor do they include cheaper development options either in the Central Lending Library or in other council or privately owned buildings. They are only options for large capital costs or large reductions in service.

· Options to work with other arts and/or education organisations within the city to provide a dedicated space for the display and education in contemporary art do not seem to have been explored.

· There appears to have been no consultation with current, previous and potential future users of The City Gallery, or with other arts/education organisations within the city to determine to need and therefore the loss to the city if provision was radically reduced or completely withdrawn.

· Arts Council funding of £126,909 for 2011/12 will not be available without a robust programme of exhibitions - these proposals do not constitute a robust programme. Also and the option to apply for funding from 2012 onwards has been discounted thus loosing a potential investment into Leicester’s visual arts of £463,471 over four years (based on ACE 15% reduction on 2010/11 City Gallery funding).

· Under ‘Legal Implications’ Section 5.2.2 it states that: “Possible redeployment and redundancy issues for affected staff are identified in the report.” But these are not clearly identified in the report. The current number of staff, (full-time, part-time and sessional staff) are not referred to in the report and therefore a judgement on the implications of the loss of some or all of these by the Councillors at the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board is not possible.

· The proposed Option 2 budget of £34,000 per annum for the integration of City Gallery services to: “cover the staffing costs of exhibition, learning and community engagement support at New Walk Museum and Gallery.” Is clearly not sufficient to cover the stated three annual exhibitions, plus learning, plus community engagement, plus staffing for the coordination of these services.

This petition is to ask Leicester City Council to immediately re-think these proposals and to:

· Continue with current City Gallery services maintaining the 2011/12 funding from Arts Council England whilst a plan is developed for a sustainable and permanent space for contemporary visual art provision in Leicester.

· Consult with current and past users of City Gallery services, other arts/education organisations and key potential funders to determine the need for these services and how these needs can best be met within potential resources.

· Consult with Arts Council England and apply to the ‘National portfolio funding programme’ for funding from 2012 onwards (by the advertised deadline of 22nd January 2011).

· Clearly identify the implications on staffing including numbers of permanent and sessional staff that will be moved out of the organisation or made redundant.

Please sign the petition to save visual arts in Leicester:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41053.html