The changes to the form and the application process are designed to make it easier for people to apply for a grant, to make it easier to process and to increase the chances of an application being successful.

The form is available online at www.artscouncil.org.uk and printed packs will be available from May.

Source of message: EMIT Writers News (April).

It's not only actors who are complaining about cuts in Arts funding. Due to further changes made by the Arts Council England to its arts and literature budgets earlier this year, the funding body's Scottish sister organisation has quietly axed £100,000 from its grants to Scottish publishers, reports the guardian.

Hugh Andrew, chief executive of the Berlinn/Polygonn group, one of the largest publishing houses in Scotland, earlier told the Scotsman that the block funding cuts would also harm the ability of larger publishers to invest in new Scottish writing.

(Ever wondered how the Scottish government were going to be able to afford personal care for the elderly when the English and Welsh can not).

It would be easy to read that last linked article and think that the Arts Council's sudden u-turn was a good sign. It's not. Whilst the Bush has had a significant reprieve, other vital venues have still lost out. The Drill Hall, London's major lesbian and gay performance space, have still lost out entirely. Whilst I had read Tim Miller's work before seeing him there for the first time, seeing him in a gay-specific venue was absolutely vital. Name me another, similar space where work like that can be held with the same impact, and I'll agree with its funding removal. Otherwise it too is a backward decision. I just don't get it. Making lesbian and gay contributions to the arts less visible surely couldn't be part of the Council's remit?

African and Caribbean Music Circuit
Jacksons Lane
Arts Digest
Queer Up North
Northcott Theatre
Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation)
Bristol Old Vic
National Student Drama Festival
The Bush (Alternative Theatre Company)
Anvil Press
Arcadia Books
Harrogate Theatre
Film London
Orange Tree Theatre
Crafts Council
Eastern Angles
Birmingham Opera Company

So nothing for Early Music Network, London Mozart Players, COMA (London), the City of London Sinfonia or the London Musicians' Collective. Birmingham Opera is at least something. The Times has a full list of venues and organisations hit by the cuts.

Further down the ACE's press release is the announcement of

An extra £200,000 invested strategically in Literature with an emphasis on encouraging interaction between writers and children and young people, and on further promotion of reading following the National Year of Reading.

Sounds to me like £200,000 of ACE money being spent on doing the job of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Among those threatened under the original proposals were Birmingham Opera, the Early Music Network, the London Mozart Players and the London Musicians' Collective - all of them essential and significant contributors to Britain's cultural make up. The news now is that the LMP may have its £160,000 grant reinstated under the new considerations, but there appears to be no word yet on the other bodies.

Apart from the occasional letter to the Times, however, the response from leading musicians has been a muted sub-pianissimo. Only the LMC seem to have roused much activity, maintaining a collection of letters of support from the experimental world. Sir Christopher Frayling, chairman of Arts Council England, maintains that "It is not the decibel count which has influenced us, but reasoned argument", but one wonders at the impact of celebrity outrage too. It is easier, after all, to support funding for a student theatre festival if it happens to include Stephen Fry, Simon Russell Beale, Rik Mayall and Timothy West among its alumni - "Look - grassroots arts are where we find the stars of the future". But that same argument can't quite be made on behalf of music: even the greatest players to make their way with the support of the LMC are going to remain on the fringes; an outstanding oboist in the LMP may end up with the Berlin Phil - but they're still just an orchestral oboist.

It's not that music is short of superstars who can get the ear of a minister or two - plenty of them are happy to pipe up when expiring copyright terms begin to bite into their pension. The argument for maintaining the experimental, unusual, innovative, specialist and esoteric in music is simply harder to make (but no less necessary for that), and not one that much interests Cliff Richard or Bono. It's still sadder that it doesn't appear to have interested Bryn Terfel or Sir Simon Rattle either - at least, I can find no public mention of their complaints. Why is this? Are musicians shrinking violets? Is it because they maintain that music and politics have nothing to say to one another? Or have those at the top of the tree, dazzled by continual performances of canonic works in great venues, lost sight of the importance of small-scale, local music-making?

Who knows. But when the dust settles and the cuts are made, let's hope that the silenced ensembles aren't matched only by the silence of acquiescence.

(Cross posted at Bits of News)

Paul Pfeiffer
THE SAINTS
Wembley
26 september - 28 October 2007
www.artangel.org.uk
Commisioned by Artangel. Supported by Bloomberg. Produced with Outset Conteporary Art Fund and Ellipse Foundation

Sukhdev Sandhu
NIGHT HAUNTS
www.nighthaunts.org.uk
Published by Artangel and Verso

Ruth Ewan
DID YOU KISS THE FOOT
THAT KICKED YOU?
October 2007
www.balladofaccounting.org
Commisioned by Artangel and the Jerwood Charity, supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Penny Woolcock
EXODUS
64th Venice Film Festival September 2007
The Times 51st BFI London Film Festival October 2007
Channel 4 Broadcast October 2007
www.themargateexodus.org.uk
Produced by Artangel and commisioned by Channel4, with Creative Partenerships, Arts Council England, Kent County Council and The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Roni Horn
VATNASAFN/
LIBRARY OF WATER
Stykkishòlmur, Iceland
www.libraryofwater.is
Commisioned by Artangel with the Ministry of Education, Sciense and Culture, the Ministry of Communications and the Icelandic Parliament with the support of FL Group, N1, Straumur-Burduras, the VATNASAFN/LIBRARY OF WATER Circle and Artangel International Circle

ARTANGEL's programmes are made possible by Arts Council England, The Company of Angels and Arangel Internazional Circle