Arts Council gets rid of 'the' and 'of' in £70,000 rethink

The Arts Council of England has spent £70,000 changing its name to "Arts Council England'' as part of moves to create a more streamlined organisation.

From Monday, the body responsible for nearly £500m of public money this year will drop two words from its title. The system of regional boards with their own names, such as Northern Arts, will end. A simpler grants system will reduce the 100 schemes to which individuals or organisations can apply to five.

But while all applications will now be made through London, they will be administered by regional offices so applicants have a local figure for consultation and advice.

After an increase in government support in the latest spending round, the council will invest £2bn of public funds in the arts in England between now and 2006, including a much bigger budget of £25m for grants to artists.

The focus on encouraging brilliant individuals follows criticism from leading figures such as the theatre director Peter Brook, who left Britain for France in exasperation that the most dynamic artists were not being supported.

The reorganisation cost about £7.5m and provoked rebellion from some of the old regional boards at one point. A total of 100 out of 660 jobs will be cut. The council should save £20m a year for the next three years and £8m a year thereafter.

Gerry Robinson, the council chairman, said there had been "a lot of heat" about the name and structure.

Some fear that the structure of regional offices administering the grants could provoke a conflict with head office.

But Mr Robinson said yesterday that the former regional boards were now agreed that the change to Arts Council England was the best way forward. "I don't think it's a new era, but I do think there has been a quiet evolution over the last four to five years. I hope we will be able to achieve a great deal more in this singular, straightforward way.''

A new circular logo, devised by Lambie-Nairn, will be used to brand all projects, individuals and organisations supported by the council. Mr Robinson said he was struck when he was appointed in 1998 by how poorly the arts were funded and how badly the funding structure operated.

Strong lobbying has produced an increase in funding of 117 per cent between 1999 and the end of the current settlement in 2006, from £189m a year to £410m a year.

This was allowing the arts to thrive, Mr Robinson said. "This level of investment provides the arts with a platform for a new era of growth and expansion. Our ambition is to place the arts at the heart of national life and we are planning a bold programme of investment to achieve that aim."

In broad terms, £25m will go to individual artists over the next three years compared with £4.5m in 2002-03. The regularly funded organisations, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, will see an increase from £230m in 2002-03 to about £300m and Creative Partnerships, the scheme that gives children access to artists and performers, will have a budget of at least £45m a year by 2005-06.

Peter Hewitt, the council's chief executive, described the occasion as a "real landmark" and said the reorganisation had helped to convince ministers that increased funding would be well spent. "There's no doubt that the Government is clear that we did well financially because we got a grip ... and we made changes."