Trawling through the publicly available accounts of arts organisations is not a fun thing to do. Wading through a mud pit full of man traps would be more entertaining but wade we did and this is what we found (all numbers are for year end 2010).
Richard Alston Dance Company spent £57,660 on marketing, £31,356 on (so-called) central communications costs, £109,229 on central administration and £24,966 on fund raising from a total budget of £1.09Million.
The Place in London spent £60,664 on marketing, £69,764 on central communication costs and £95,241 on administration.
Dance City, the NDA based in Newcastle upon Tyne, spent £33,484 on advertising and promotion, more than £10,000 on phone bills, just under £50,000 on repairs and maintenance, £39,708 on “motor vehicle expenses” and just shy of £39,000 on the lighting and heating.
DanceXchange, in Birmingham spent £73,593 on light and heat, £18,000 on phone and internet, £7,980 on postage and stationery, £32,320 on marketing and £12,465 on travel costs.
Dance East, the NDA with the new building in Ipswich, spent £77,176 on travel, £77,982 on graphic design and printing, £40,899 on mailouts (sic) £22,968 on communications and another £17,267 on travel and accommodation under another heading.
We bring you these numbers for one reason and one reason alone. With the overhyped threat of impending doom surrounding tomorrows ACE announcements about the NPO funding it’s easy to forget that there is money to be saved without actually trashing the artistic/learning side of the arts.
Reducing printing and postage for one, moving more publicity online for another or using Skype instead of expensive business phone lines and turning off some lights now and then. Some of these savings would be more significant than others for obvious reasons.
None of the numbers listed above are staff costs or artistic production costs, although some of the travel expenses may be connected to those activities. If that is the case, find a cheaper way to travel, it can be done.
Tomorrow doesn’t have to be the end of anything, there are lots of ways to save money on one thing to spend more money on the other thing, that thing being the art.
ACE’s carnival of destruction gets under way at 10am tomorrow, we’ll bring you the numbers as we get them but until then limber up and get your game face on because there’s a fight to be had and we like a good ruck!