Hi Heath,
>the arts council scapegoated irational.org instead
>of supporting it as is its mandate
Your experience with the Arts Council sounds terrible.
The ACE response at the bottom of the article seems to say their main
concern is about misappropriation of public funds. But what does this
really mean, it could mean anything, what examples do they have that we
can look at?
Surely we are entering a kind of totalitarian initiative reflecting an
arts version of Minority report-- a kind of panopticon of the arts,
where concerns based on losing one's funding creates a perpetual
condition of fear, therefore self-censorship.
Wishing you well.
marc
On Mon, 22 Sep 2014, marc garrett wrote:
irational was blacklisted by arts council
for displaying arts council logo on irational website
as stipulated by arts council funding requirements
after the daily mail newspaper published a hit piece against
arts council using irational.org as a weapon
the arts council scapegoated irational.org instead of supporting it
as is its mandate
i received a call from the chief exec of arts council at the time
swearing and threatening me that if we did not remove the logo from
our our site immediately he would fuck us up
we waited a few days to discuss internally and then removed it
during which time, other government departments had further threatened
irational.org
this new gagging clause it to protect individual careers in the arts
council not even the arts council itself
Hi all,
Thought this important to share here....
marc
Arts Council adds new gagging clause to NPO contracts
Arts organisations and those connected to them must be sure not to do
anything that could damage ACE’s reputation as a Government sponsored
body, else their grants could be at risk.
Arts Council England (ACE) is inserting a new clause into its
National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) grant contracts for 2015-18 to
deter any individual involved with those organisations in any
capacity from doing anything that ACE considers might damage its
reputation. Under the new draft contract, from 2015 ACE will be able
to “impose additional terms and conditions” on an NPO if it judges
that the organisation’s staff, trustees, volunteers or anyone else
“closely involved” with it may be acting so as to have a “detrimental
effect… on its [ACE’s] reputation as a distributor of public money or
as a Government sponsored body”. Under the 2012-15 NPO contracts, ACE
could withhold or demand repayment of all or part of an
organisation’s grant if it acted in a way that was likely to harm
ACE’s reputation, and this clause remains in the new contract, but
the much broader scope of the new clause has raised serious concerns
across the sector.
Potentially the new clause could not only prevent anyone connected
with an NPO from speaking publicly about ACE decisions or policies,
but it could also give the funding body the power to withdraw from
arts activities that it initially agrees to fund, but which it
subsequently judges to be too politically or socially sensitive.
Simon Hughes MP, Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties,
told AP: “I think this clause is too extreme. I understand that ACE
want to discourage organisations from public criticism but this
wording is drafted also to control individuals and curb their
fundamental freedom of speech. I would urge funded organisations to
think carefully before signing up to this restriction of activity for
their staff, governing bodies and volunteers.”
more…
http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-council-adds-new-gagging-clause-npo-contracts
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