Kim Hicks, Chair of the Bristol and West of England Equity with Gill Simmons and Gerard Cooke

Actors and Creatives in Bristol are angry and dismayed at Bristol City Council’s decision to further delay the announcing of what funding, if any, will be available to the city’s Arts organisations until 2024.

Having first stated the delay would be from October 2022 to June 2023, Bristol’s Mayor Marvin Rees has now said that the funding for arts organisations will not be confirmed until March 2024.

This 18 month delay means that many creative organisations find themselves in a deeply insecure situation, unable to plan or look to the future with any confidence. Some of the companies affected have already been overlooked and left in peril by the recent withdrawal of funding from Arts Council England.

Bristol is a city blessed with a lively, vibrant arts and creative culture. If that precious resource is diminished we will all be the poorer for it.

Actor, writer and activist Gerard Cooke, splendidly attired in pirate costume complete with parrot said:

“Artists and creatives are sick and tired of the erosion in Arts funding which has occurred over the last ten years or more. Under Mayor Marvin Rees, Bristol City Council is an administration that seems to refuse to acknowledge the huge benefits of art and culture and how it is essential for local authorities to fund this.”

Gill Simmons, Artistic Director and Founder of theatre company Brave Bold Drama said:

“The Arts are for every human being. Unfortunately we are seen as ‘nice to have”, mere window dressing, but we bring essential joy and representation to everyone in the city.”

Photo credit: Mike Whitton