The council's current annual grant of £449m is dropping to £349m by 2014 as a result of the Spending Review. Arts funding bodies in the rest of the UK are developing their own plans. Arts Council England hands out government funding to venues across the country from local companies to the Royal Opera House. Until now the body says there has been no process under which organisations could apply for funding.
Under the plans, all existing organisations are able to apply and new organisations will also be eligible for funding. Decisions will be made over funding depending on the "context of a clear set of strategic priorities and the reduced resources available". The council's head, Dame Liz Forgan said, although funding cuts will have a "severe impact" on their budget, they will not "dent the shape of our ambitions for the arts and audiences in this country". She added: "Salami slicing our portfolio of organisations would never have been an appropriate long-term response, regardless of our settlement. That is why a vision for the future is so important to us. We want to build a portfolio where organisations, large, medium and small, are able to prosper as well as survive."
The Show That Never Ends - The Rolling Stones plan to tour in 2011, despite rumours that they had retired from touring altogether. "Everybody's ready to go out there again," Keith Richards told BBC 6 Music. "Who said it should stop, and who said when? Only we will know when it comes to an end, with a crashing halt."
The Stones' last world tour earned $558m (£344m), but was reported to be the band's last after several dates were postponed due to ill health. The European leg of the Bigger Bang tour was delayed in 2006 when Richards had brain surgery, following a widely-reported fall from a coconut palm. He later said the incident had been exaggerated, telling the NME, "I was sitting on a shrub [and] I happened to fall off it the wrong way."
Web News - The first preview performance of the musical Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark has been postponed from 14 November 14 to 28 November at Broadway's Foxwoods Theatre, due to reported problems with the show's elaborate technical aspects, especially its flying apparatus. The show's lead producer Michael Cohl stated, "Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark has an unprecedented level of technical artistry, and getting it right takes time. We apologise in advance to any inconvenienced ticket holders." The show's official opening date has also been moved back, from 21 December 2010 to 11 January 11.
(Jim Evans)
