at the Bluecoat.

Funding update by Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat

• Apr 01, 2011
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The Arts Council has announced what funding the Bluecoat will receive for the years 2012-2015. Having already had to manage a drop in income of 31% this year, 2011, on last year the anticipation and anxiety around this announcement has been palpable. Just to balance this year’s budget and keep the Bluecoat going we have had to cut our staff costs by 28% in a single year and unfortunately not all of that has been achieved voluntarily.

We appreciate that the money we will receive from the Arts Council and from Liverpool City Council comes from taxpayers and we value their support at a time when there are other cuts being made to so many services. However the room for us to survive further cuts is extremely limited, so a standstill funding settlement is on the edge of the money the Bluecoat needs in order to continue offering such a rich mix of activities.

We must now accept the challenge we are faced with and the responsibility we have to ensure that the Bluecoat flourishes.  We are well set to do this as we have plans already for a wonderful programme of exhibitions and events over the next four years and now we must roll up our sleeves to deliver them.

The Bluecoat has grown in popularity every year since reopening and in 2010 we saw 700,000 visits. We will now have to be even more creative on our considerably diminished budget to ensure that visitors enjoy the Bluecoat and are as pleased in the future with all the amazing things there are to do, see and get involved with here.

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