Commissioners efforts leave areas “under-represented for funding”

Anti-under-representation Czars correct
their own under-representation gaffe

Some months ago, Eric Pickles said that under Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s Administration, Tower Hamlets Council handed out grants unevenly across the borough. He sent in “commissioners” to run the borough better – who recently finished dealing with applications to the Main Stream Grants (MSG) programme, which are made every three years.

The Council has now issued an appeal to arts organisations and community groups to apply to the Event Fund to fund events being held between January and March 2016. The Event Fund is part of the MSG programme. And the Council “is interested in receiving applications for events in ward areas which are under-represented for funding” (sic).

It seems that the people who came in to eliminate geographical bias in Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s grants system have found that their own system has led to geographical bias – a discovery which has been made at our expense. Ah well.

The Event Fund exists to provide small grants for high quality public arts, events, and festivals (do councils ever give grants for poor quality events?). Organisations can apply for up to £2,500 – with the average application being in the range of £500 to £1,000. The funding can be used to support projects such as film festivals and community festivals, including music, dance and theatre events. These events must be arts-based and accessible and must demonstrate a real benefit to the community. The Council hinted that applicants may wish to consider celebrating or commemorating significant anniversaries or key calendar events such as LGBT Month, Women’s History Month, Chinese New Year or Holocaust Memorial Day.

The areas “under-represented for funding” are: Blackwall and Cubitt Town, Bow East, Bow West, Bromley South, Canary Wharf, Island Gardens, Lansbury and St Katherine’s and Wapping.

Cllr Asma Begum, Cabinet Member for Culture, addressed the issue with the insight of an X-Factor judge, stating, “The Event Fund has a real benefit to arts and cultural organisations in the borough. But most importantly, it delivers brilliant events to the community.”

The deadline for applications to fund events taking place in February is 7th December and for events in March the deadline is 6th January and the Council says there is more information about applying on its website.

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