There were cheers at Britain’s oldest theatre yesterday after it won a reprieve from the Arts Council - but tears a few miles north at an Afro-Caribbean arts project that had not.
The future of the Bristol Old Vic, which had benefited from the lobbying power of a legion of luvvies, now looks assured. In contrast, there were no influential voices arguing on behalf of the Kuumba Arts and Community Resource Centre in the suburb of St Paul’s, home to a large part of the city’s Afro-Caribbean community.
The centre has been undergoing a reorganisation, but it came too late. A nursery and a library face a bleak future, as does its programme of black music, poetry and dance.
The Bristol Old Vic, which opened in 1762, closed with no notice last May for unscheduled “refurbishment”. All pending productions were cancelled and no date was given for its reopening.
The decision by the trustees who run the Grade I listed complex caused an outcry led by many of the actors whose careers had been launched on its stage. It looked like the final curtain had fallen when the Arts Council announced in December that it would be unable to approve this year’s grant, but the decision galvanised the Save the Old Vic campaign, and alumni of its theatre school, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons, Greta Scacchi, Patricia Routledge and Patrick Stewart, gave it their backing.
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Fundraisers have already won pledges of more than £4 million toward the cost of the £9 million refurbishment. The Arts Council yesterday confirmed its £2 million contribution, which leaves a more manageable shortfall of £2.9 million. It also reinstated its annual £1.1 million grant, which helps to meet the operating costs.
In St Paul’s there was disappointment but little surprise as the news came through that Kuumba had lost its funding. Without the £113,000 a year it had hoped for, the organisation’s future is in doubt and many of the 12 staff will lose their jobs.Ron Morrison, managing director, said: “They shouldn’t have cut our funding so abruptly. If they didn’t like the way we were doing things they could have given us a year to sort it out.”