Dame Liz Forgan is in her final days as chair of Arts Council England. She was the first to draw a salary – all previous chairmen having taken on the stressful job as an act of public benefice.
Liz is throwing a farewell party for herself. The Daily Mail reports it was going to cost the taxpayer £12,000. After media protests, the ACE has cut the bill back to £8,000.
Can Liz and her colleagues not see how bloated this looks? Not just to an economy in crisis, but to an arts sector where every 10 pence piece is weighed and measured before it is spent? How much more anecdotal evidence do politicians need before they investigate the ACE?
When she took the job I warned Liz, a successful media executive, that she would not come out of it well. I am sorry to see that prediction fulfilled.
And to think they turned us down for £10k funding recently due to it being unclear how the public would benefit from the project (which is involving large numbers of the local populace! oh well!).
Obviously much better to spend this small (to them) yet large (to our project) on a shindig for the grande dame.
They should just put a few quid beind the bar at their local and say farewell like most workplaces up and down the country do…
I think Norman should gatecrash the party on our behalf… how about it, Norman?
How can a leaving party come to £8K? Is she hiring the ballroom of the Ritz Hotel and Nobu to do the catering?
“How can a leaving party come to £8K?”
- Trebles all round!
Perhaps she has hired Katherine Jenkins as the cabaret?
Cabaret? The Arts Council is much too grand to have cabaret! Or to hire Katherine Jenkins come to that.
Oh come on Norman! Your source for this is the Daily Mail? That is pathetic!
The figures are confirmed by ACE.
It’s not the figures, it’s the Mail’s (regular) dishonest manipulation of them. Sad to see you falling into the same nasty habits…
Totally agree. This is just rubbish. Knowing Liz Forgan I would really doubt this story. Come on NL ………….. you know her better than that. SJ
There’s nothing to doubt here, Sarah. The ACE confirmed the spend. Liz got it wrong, again.
“Successful media executive”? So why didn’t she bring those talents to this last position?
We all know that these people can always find the money to spend on themselves. I mean why are they in the job in the first place?
I’m afraid the ACE priorities were clear to me the 1st time I checked out their glossy, gorgeously beautiful magazine. Not exactly a subtle, respectful, use of public money.
It seems like most “Art Council” or boards or similar management groups care more for themselves than the groups they are tasked to manage!
Look at all the Symphony boards that are cutting the musicians pay but rarely cut their management staff or budgets!
Do they not realize why they are there or who they are supposed to support?
Sickening!!
Eric
You’re talking about the US here, I take it?
will any of that 8K be used for paying the musicians a decent fee? Thought not!
Needed: Total Bonfire of these Quangos. Remove all the public funding for parasites like this narcissistic thief, Dame Liz Forgan.
For those who are wondering how £8k can be spent on a leaving do for this loyal and hardworking public servant – well there’s a report in the papers now, as it took place on Tuesday evening. I know it’s only the Daily Mail but here you are:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2263682/Outgoing-Arts-Council-chief-Dame-Liz-Forgan-attacks-budget-cuts-8-000-farewell.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
What I find most outrageous is that because the original budget of £12,500 was turned down as being excessive (oh really?!), they simply found £8k instead from another budget by reclassifying the piss-up as a “lecture”!!
And what was this “lecture” for the gathering of the mediocre at the specially-hired Egyptian Sculpture Gallery in the British Museum? An interesting presentation on antiquities? A seminar on newly discovered Classical theatre? Anything to do with the arts at all? No, it was a rant delivered by the aforementioned parasite about education policy and so-called “cuts”.
Indeed the only culture or arts on display at this Arts Council-funded “lecture” (apart from dead Egyptians) was a peculiar painting which was specially commissioned at the princely sum of £200 as a farewell gift. Is this someone’s idea of a joke? Maybe it’s damning with faint praise? Spend £8k on booze and a swanky location, and use the loose change to show just how much the ex-employee was valued. Maybe the whip-round was only sufficient for a bag of crisps.
What a bloody waste and what a scandal. How anyone can stand there ranting drunkenly about “education cuts” to their mates drinking bubbly to the tune of 8k that should have itself been spent on arts education (i.e. lectures) is utterly unbelievable, and Liz Forgan should be utterly ashamed of herself.
Norman if you can corroborate the “facts” as given by the Daily Mail then that would be great…
But Tim!
It’s surprisingly easy to run up a bill of £8k for a leaving do. A few little dwinkies, a couple of nibbles, a splash of Bolly, and… well, it all goes down surprisingly easily, eh?
I don’t know why you’re making such a fuss – after all, it wasn’t anyone’s personal money, it was just taxpayer funds. Always fun to splatter them about for the Great & Good, eh? They’d be wasted, for example, on… well, on taxpayers, wouldn’t they?
I’m sure we can expect the incoming Big Cheese at the Arse Council to be just as profligate?
It was ACE of course which was continuously reminding us to seek sponsorship rather than looking to them for handouts. I do hope that leading drinkie producers were approached to sponsor Dame Liz’s little bash? Y’know, a slab of Special Brew to look after the guests? A couple of packs of hotdogs on the house?
It would be a salutory experience for these ACE types to attend a few normal concerts. When I was in London just before Christmas, a composer friend of mine had an evening of his works being done in the basement at Schott’s. Jonathan Powell, among others, was performing. After the concert there was a glass of wine or juice, and a few crisps. The composer himself had bought the refreshments at Tescos out of his own pocket.
Shame on you, Liz Forgan. Shame on you.
But eight thousand pounds is mere piffle, compared with the Arse Council’s other foibles.
Here is the story of how a serving ACE employee was put onto a ‘sabbatical’, so that they could take up a remunerative new post elsewhere… while still getting their ACE six-figure salary *and* qualifying for a redundancy lump-sum payment when they leave!!
http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/exclusive-stark-facts-ace-severance-package