I heard a few days ago that Photofusion, the gallery and photography centre in Brixton, South London, has lost its Arts Council England NPO (National Portfolio of arts Organisations) status and that its funding was to be cut. I found it hard to believe, but you can now read a little more about it on the British Journal of Photography on-line. There it makes clear that the annual £150,893 revenue grant will end in March 2015.
The BJP quotes Peter Heslip, director of visual arts at ACE as saying “Photofusion did meet the criteria we set, but there were other applications we considered to be stronger.” He does go on to state “we will be exploring with the management and trustees what other options might be available to them in terms of Arts Council funding in the coming period.”
The decision would appear to be a part of a continuing attack by ACE on photography in England. In 2011 they withdrew funding from Side Gallery in Newcastle, arguably the only truly world-class photography organisation in the UK – and Side has failed to get this restored in the current round, though lottery funding for its parent organisation has kept it going.
There are still a few grants to what ACE regards as photography-specific organisations around the country, including in London both the Photographers’ Gallery and Autograph ABP . I certainly don’t begrudge Autograph its grant increase, and though I’m no great fan of the PG, it is something we obviously need – though as a long-term member (I think my membership has possibly just lapsed yet again as they are so incompetent in their record-keeping – or perhaps they just don’t want my money after what I’ve written about them) I feel they are failing photography.
Heslip says “Photography-based projects do really well on grants for the arts” and goes on to give some figures, as well as saying that most of the galleries they fund have at least one exhibition each year that features photography. But it’s a statement I can only view with utter derision. There may be shows that have some photographic element (if only a photograph of the artist or some artistic works0 but that is not encouraging or showing photography.
I’ve had some association with Photofusion since before it started, with its pre-cursor a couple of miles away in Battersea, the Photo Co-op in Webbs Road. I’ve had my criticisms over the years but also praise, and it has played an important role in photography in London and the South-East for many years, and I do hope it will find the resources to continue its programmes. I’ve written perhaps 20 posts about shows and events there here on >Re:PHOTO over the years – such as Changing Spaces at Photofusion and contributed work to its library for many years.
The withdrawal of support from such a vital organisation supporting photography is yet another example of “the lack of any real photographic culture or support for photographers in the UK” which I last wrote about only a few days ago in Who Speaks for Photography?
