Arts Council England is focused on investment outside London | Letter
In response to recent letters (26 April) about the Arts Everywhere Fund, it is important to note that this programme was heavily oversubscribed, reflecting the acute need for capital investment across the cultural sector.We are pleased that there will be further rounds of the fund, with details to be published in the coming months.While we are always mindful of the geographic spread of the investment we make, this fund had a clear purpose: to prioritise organisations facing critical capital need.On that basis, the north received more than £40m – approximately 31% of the £128m awarded in total – supporting 45 museums, libraries and cultural organisations, the highest number of awards made to any area.Arts Council England recognises the historic imbalance in cultural funding and has been working to invest more outside London, increasing investment beyond the capital to approximately 70% of our total investment since 2022.
Barrow‑in‑Furness, cited in recent correspondence, is one of our priority places, where we are investing in local cultural infrastructure, including through organisations such as Full of Noises, one of the recent recipients of Arts Everywhere funding,We will continue to work to bring cultural excellence, opportunity and investment to more places and more people,Nicholas SerotaChair, Arts Council England Christine Baranski’s critique of Liverpool as a victim of arts funding cuts feels a bit harsh (Letters, 26 April),The reason Tate Liverpool is closed is because of a costly redevelopment, and meanwhile it retains a gallery hosted by the Royal Institute of British Architects nearby on Mann Island – a good example of a London-based organisation expanding its influence,Preparations are well advanced for a bigger and better slavery museum, with National Museums Liverpool (NML) being directly grant-aided by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport rather than having to fight for a share of regional funding.
What Liverpool currently lacks is a vocal advocate after the style of Michael Heseltine, whose interventions in the early 1980s kickstarted the revival of the city region as a massive cultural asset.And to draw on local knowledge – having grown up in Silverdale, next door to Baranski’s village of Arnside – I would dispute the description of Kirkby Lonsdale as “once vibrant”.Indeed, it recently revived its annual book fair, asserting its status as a magnet for bookworms.John EdmondsonFormer employee of NML and exhibitor at Kirkby Lonsdale book fair, Holywell, Flintshire Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Royal Opera House calls for release of Georgian bass singer jailed over democracy protests
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There was a striking moment during this week’s episode of The Rewatchables, the wildly popular film-recap podcast that I reach for when I’ve had my fill of history/football/glum current affairs pods. The episode was revisiting 90s comedy There’s Something About Mary, a film that in some ways holds up hilariously, and in others has aged about as well as a bottle of semi-skimmed on a summer’s day in Death Valley. As part of the episode, the podcast’s panel were going through their favourite comedy films by decade and were spoilt for choice – until, that is, they reached the 2020s, when they seemed to collectively draw a blank. “The Drama’s pretty funny …” one offered tentatively. Finally, host Bill Simmons cut through the umming, ahhing and awkward silence to get to the heart of the matter: “Do we have comedies any more? What happened to comedies?”Yes, what did happen to comedies? Or rather, what happened to the “everyday” American comedies like There’s Something About Mary that once set up a permanent frat house residence in cinemas? You know the ones I mean: those that took a familiar real-world situation – teens trying to lose their virginity, a man clashing with his girlfriend’s dad, a maid of honour struggling to arrange a hen do, stunted adolescents refusing to fly the nest – and stretched them to absurd and lurid extremes
Ah, ah, ah, ah - I saved my dad’s life with a little help from The Office and the Bee Gees
When my father collapsed suddenly, an episode of the US comedy in which Steve Carell does CPR to the tune of Stayin’ Alive sprung miraculously to mindIt was a boiling hot day last summer, four days after my dad’s 73rd birthday. Mum was plating up dinner and Dad was on the sofa complaining about how stifling it was. I was meant to head to work, for my job as a personal trainer, but decided to take the evening off. It was just as well: as I turned back to Mum, Dad collapsed backwards and suffered a massive cardiac arrest.Mum was hysterical
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