Bosses at English National Opera were breathing a sigh of relief today as the organisation received the full funding it requested from Arts Council England, and was given a reprieve on finding a new home out of London right away.
A joint statement released this morning revealed the Arts Council had awarded the opera company a grant of £24m for April 2024 to March 2026 and a longer timeframe to establish its main base outside the capital. Rather than move headquarters to a new city by the end of 2026, the ENO now has until March 2029.
Sir Nicholas Serota, chair of the Arts Council, said the ENO had “presented inspiring ideas to bring their excellent work to people beyond the capital and to explore a range of new ways of presenting opera” adding the investment was to “help them realise these ambitions”.
Harry Brünjes, chair of the ENO, said the board and management looked forward to working with the Arts Council “to develop this positive future for the organisation.”
He added, “We welcome this investment and additional time which we believe will help us to successfully develop a new main base out of London, while maintaining a season at the London Coliseum.”
One ENO insider added the news was “really positive”, while classical music experts have described it as a win for the opera venue.
Over the next two years, the ENO will develop an artistic programme in the city it ends up moving to, alongside its work at the Coliseum. The venue plans to confirm its choice of city by the end of the year. It had been in discussions with Bristol, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. “We will now take stock and pick up those conversations again, though there is less pressure to up-sticks right away,” the insider said.
In November, when the Arts Council announced its latest funding round for the 990 National Portfolio Organisations it supports, it revealed the decision to cut the ENO from the portfolio. It instead offered £17m for the company to develop a new model based outside London.
After an outcry from the classical music world and complaints that the ENO had not been given enough time to overhaul its operations, ACE first offered £11.4m in January to fund it over the year, and then, in April invited it to apply for up to £24m for the two years from 2024 to 2026.
Earlier this month, the Musicians’ Union called on the Arts Council to offer the full £24m or risk damaging the future of the art form. The union feared job losses would follow any funding cuts and that would “have an impact all along the talent pipeline”.
A source close to the ENO said, “We’ve been making that argument all along, that it would impact on the talent pipeline. This is where many young musicians cut their teeth before moving onto an international career. Hopefully this means we’re in a much more positive place when it comes to developing British talent.”
The statement added that the shared ambition was for the ENO to be in a strong position to apply for the Arts Council’s National Portfolio of funded organisations from 2026.
Culture secretary Lucy Frazer called the ENO a “treasured national institution” and welcomed the agreement with the Arts Council.
