everyman theatre funding blow and possible NML closures

Everyman and Playhouse bosses are bullish today, saying they "are working in a very positive spirit with our other partners and stakeholders - including Arts Council England, Liverpool Vision, The Mersey Partnership and Liverpool City Council - to make sure that this does not affect the momentum or the quality of the Everyman redevelopment."
But losing 10% of your funding is no small headache and I certainly don't envy the team up in Hope Street and their battle now to secure the shortfall from other rapidly diminishing wells of cash.
Meanwhile everything in the garden at NML is anything but rosy.
You may recall in my "artmageddon" article in the Echo about 10 days ago, David Fleming talked about how nothing had been ruled out when it comes to finding the (at least) 30% cuts it's facing from DCMS funding.
Then, he talked about closures, shorter opening times, job losses and sales of assets.
Today, the first steps have becoming somewhat clearer.
The Conservation Centre could well be closed come the autumn and possibly used to re-house the NML staff while their offices (some of the 'assets' mentioned in the previous article) in Dale Street are sold off.
Meanwhile the Piermaster's House at the Pier Head could also be for the chop, and Sudley House opening hours could become seasonal - a bit like the National Trust I suppose. Considering I feared Sudley House might be for the bin permanently, this is the most workable solution in the grim circumstances.
It's hard to argue the case for the arts escaping swingeing cuts when health, transport etc are all being targeted too.
But as someone said to me not long ago. You have to look at the individual impact of where the axe falls.
A bypass or a new hospital might be able to be built in five or 10 years time, but an arts organisation already works on a tight budget and losing even a small amount of funding could sound the death knell for a number of them.
Yes, the Everyman could limp on for a few more years, getting worse and worse.
But I am glad today that the theatre's leaders aren't willing to let their dreams die.
This is just the beginning of the cuts and it's going to really hurt. We're just not sure how much quite yet.