Arts news: Cash-starved theatre to close in shadow of Millennium Dome

The Greenwich Theatre yesterday had all its pounds 191,000 funding withdrawn, with the irony that pounds 750m is being spent on the Millennium Dome just down the road. David Lister, Arts News Editor, reports.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the London Arts Board, which made the decision about the theatre said: "If we had a percentage point of what is going to the Dome we would be able to deliver to London some fantastic work.

"Perhaps you should ask the Minister without Portfolio if he has got some money in his back pocket for Greenwich Theatre."

However, Mr Phillips added that Greenwich Theatre, which will now close at the end of March, was "without a clear artistic vision in place", its artistic director had given notice to quit and it had had low attendances, averaging only 35 per cent over the last year. A spokeswoman said the theatre's staff were disappointed and angry.

Two other London theatres which feared closure, The King's Head in Islington and The Gate in Notting Hill Gate, are to be saved thanks to grants of pounds 25,000 from the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation. Sir Cameron said he recognised the debt commercial theatre owed to the subsidised sector.

The LAB's funding decisions marked a change of attitude among arts funders, in that they took large amounts of money away from some companies so that new, innovative organisations could be given a chance.

Mr Phillips said: "We have decided to abandon the policy of equal misery for all. Repeating the patterns of the past and bemoaning the Government's policies might give me the opportunity for a few moments of heroic rhetoric against the politicians and bureaucrats; but this is real life,with real people, with real careers and real, wonderful work to offer."

It was noticeable that a number of black arts organisations including the Black Theatre Forum suffered large cuts in grant. Mr Phillips said: "We are moving away from a time when the arts funding system has to patronise black companies by saying we are going to separate you out, marginalise you and treat you like social services."

He added that the arts board would also be earmarking pounds 300,000 over three years for a special fund to enable London's artists and arts organisations to "celebrate the capital's diversity and its role as a world city".

But that failed to placate one of the black companies, Asantewaa, whose grant is still to be confirmed. A spokesman said: "We, the black companies, are again pushed into a developmental stage. To me that's a slap in the face as a black practitioner."