More news of funding cuts to culture from local authorities. Leceister City Council, according to a report by the Leicester Mercury, has scrapped plans to create a new contemporary art gallery. The budget for the gallery – £129,000 from the council, and £137,000 from Arts Council England – which had recently moved out of its former premises, is due to be cut to £34,000 each year. That money will be put towards funding temporary exhibitions at the New Walk Museum.
Robert Wann, the council's lead member for culture and leisure, told the Mercury: "The money has got to come from somewhere, and at a time of cuts this is what we've chosen to do. I think it would be wrong, while we're making people redundant at the council, to continue funding an expensive art gallery."
This, as the Mercury piece explains, is the latest chapter in a long-running saga. Until January this year, the City Gallery was housed in inadequate Granby Street premises. Since it moved out of that space, the gallery has been programming off-site exhibitions at De Montfort Hall and New Walk Museum. A decade ago, plans had been made to create a new gallery. But the plans went on ice until it was agreed to create a new space at 50 New Walk, costing £2.4m. Then doubts began to be voiced this June. New options and sites, said the council, would be looked at for a contemporary art gallery, including the central library.
Wann said at the time: "I am keen to see a new and impressive home for the visual arts in Leicester, but I also want to ensure that all of the options have been explored on the best way of achieving this, at a price that is affordable and to the benefit of the people of Leicester."
The citizens of Leicester, then, may have to head to Nottingham to find a "new and impressive home for the arts".
