In April of this year 2015 we lost all our revenue funding. This funding came from Arts Council England, Manchester City Council and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities.
Sadly we have had to make some tough decisions, the largest of which is our staff time will be reduced from 94.5 hours to just 17 hours per week. We will also be losing our office base and direct phone lines. This will have a huge effect on what Full Circle Arts can deliver and the way in which we prioritise and deliver our work.
Regrettably we are now unable to offer the following services
- One to one advice and support to other arts organisations, community groups or disabled artists.
- Training for individual disabled artists in their career development.
- Training for arts organisations in disability equality and inclusion.
- Access audits and advice for arts organisations.
- Support with marketing and development for disabled artists and arts organisations.
- Telephone advice or information. We will have no direct telephone lines.
- A jobs, training or opportunities section of our website.
- The what’s on section of our website.
- Online downloadable toolkits for artists, access to work for disabled artists, organisational development or access and inclusion.
- A searchable disabled artists section of the website.
- Subsidised consultancy.
In addition, our very popular newsletter will go from fortnightly distribution to monthly distribution.
What we will be delivering
At a time when the cuts from Austerity have been statistically proven to affect disabled people more than any other section of society, we will be concentrating on delivering inclusive accessible digital arts projects out in our communities led by disabled people and for and with disabled people. For example, currently we in the midst of two projects one a pervasive on street game challenging people’s assumptions about disability in a humorous, positive, provocative way, and a banner project Disbanners which is a project based around creative activism. The aim is to give Disabled People a voice through creating protest banners with well known marching banner artist Ed Hall.