Arts Council plans 'post-Boyden' report

In The Stage, Alistair Smith reports that, following its controversial recent funding round, Arts Council England are planning a new review of theatre funding in a similar vein to the Boyden Report produced in 2000.

Barbara Matthews, ACE director of theatre strategy, told The Stage: “It seems to me that since the Theatre Review it has only been five or six years, but during that time, demographically, economically and in terms of the art form we’re in a different world. There have been huge success stories over the last few years in terms of bringing other money into the arts regionally - Regional Development Agencies and all sorts of other sources - which makes it a very complex world for our arts organisations to operate in. The extra money comes at a price. It’s something that we need to understand better.

“We’ll be looking at where we’ve achieved what we set out to do following the Theatre Review and whether there are any commonalities, and where we haven’t achieved it, can we work out why it has gone wrong? Then, going forward, we’ll look at what we can do better.”