Bristol Arts funding cuts: how ‘cultural social services’ are hit

This week Birmingham’s artistic institutions warned the city faces ‘cultural deprivation’, after the council announced massive funding cuts to the arts.

It’s a similar picture in Nottingham and in Suffolk.

Some have called it “cultural vandalism” after years of funding cuts from central government, leaving debt ridden councils with an impossible dilemma over funding decisions.

In the latest of our reports on defunding of the arts our Culture Correspondent Minnie Stephenson has been to Bristol, to see how the cuts are hitting the community.

A spokesperson for the Bristol mayor’s office said: “All bids to the Cultural Investment Programme were considered by an independent panel. Their recommendations were approved by the Cabinet during their December meeting.

“The Mayor’s administration are proud to have protected this discretionary, multi-million-pound fund to support our city’s cultural sector, at an increasingly challenging time for local councils across the country.”