Thursday, December 20, 2007

Queerupnorth faces Arts Council axe


A blogger involved with Manchester's gay and lesbian arts festival has written to say that queerupnorth are one of the couple hundred regularly-funded arts organisations in England who may lose a significant portion of their funding in the Arts Council's latest reorganisation. He writes:

"Arts Council England plans to end funding to queerupnorth from April 1st 2008. queerupnorth is the UK’s leading lesbian and gay arts festival, a Manchester institution, and the only organistion of its type in the UK with an local, national, and international reputation.

queerupnorth will be appealing this cancellation of funding; Arts Council’s Regional Board, chaired by Tom Bloxham, will meet on January 25th to consider the appeal.

queerupnorth is an important arts festival with a key role to play in portraying the LGBT community in a positive light and in challenging complacency, discimination and homophobia, which remain challenges to be faced in our society - all from a bona fide arts platform that enriches community life for all in the Manchester area."

Follow this link to find out more about the festival's campaign.

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