fOutputJsLink('print');
From The Times
April 2, 2008
Arts funding row over sex orientation demands /* Global variables
that are used for "image browsing". Used on article pages to rotate the images
of a story. */ var sImageBrowserImagePath = ''; var aArticleImages = new
Array(); var aImageDescriptions = new Array(); var aImageEnlargeLink = new
Array(); var aImageEnlargePopupWidth = '500'; var aImageEnlargePopupHeight =
'500'; var aImagePhotographer = new Array(); var nSelectedArticleImage = 0; var
aImageAltText= new Array(); var i=0; aArticleImages[i] =
'/multimedia/archive/00311/ke385_311141a.jpg'; aImageAltText[i] = 'A
production of Kebab'; aImageEnlargeLink[i] =
'/multimedia/archive/00311/ke385_311141a.jpg'; i=i+1;
to not show photographer information --> to not show image description --> to
not show enlarge option -->
fCreateImageBrowser(nSelectedArticleImage,'landscape',"/tol/")
Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
Theatreland will have to give up its bedroom secrets in the quest for
funding, under new Arts Council requirements. Organisations applying for grants
are being asked to state how many board members are bisexual, homosexual,
heterosexual, lesbian or whose inclinations are not known.
Audrey Roy, the director of grants, said that the council needed to
understand who its audience was and to whom its funding was going. We see
diversity as broader than race, ethnicity, faith and disability, she said.
Question 22 of the Grants for the Arts forms, relating to sexual orientation,
was not compulsory, she added, although the form states that it must be
answered.
The question caused anger and bemusement among leading figures of the arts
world yesterday. The Oscar-nominated actor Sir Ian McKellen, who is openly gay,
said: It sounds extraordinary. It shouldnt be on a form. Its quite
inappropriate.
Vanessa Redgrave, the actress and human rights campaigner, said: Everyone
should put down trisexual, whoever you are. Britain has become the worlds
leading population of trisexuals.
Michael Frayn, the author of the farce Noises Off, suggested boxes to
specify how many members are longsighted or shortsighted, how many wear black
socks or brown socks.
Christopher Hampton, whose adaptation of God of Carnage is showing in the
West End, said: Its bureaucracy and political correctness gone mad.
The application form notes that the question is for government purposes only
and will not enter into the grant decision, but that claim was contradicted by
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Its spokesman said: We appreciate that, as a responsible public body they
need to monitor their overall grant-making programmes. But it is absolutely not
the case that sexual orientation monitoring is a government requirement.
Condemnation of the question spanned the arts. Julian Spalding, the former
director of galleries and museums in Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow, said:
I cant see what relevance its got. Its a horrible invasion into ones
personal and private life. He added: What they like to do in bed is not the
Arts Councils business.
Maggi Hambling, the painter who describes herself as queer, said: Its
insidious, insulting and quite outrageous for the Arts Council to consider
anyones sexual orientation of any kind to be their business. It appears to be
somewhat Hitlerian in its suggestion that grants will be given if, among the
applicants, there is a nice smattering of dykes and queers.
Nicolas Kent, the artistic director of the Tricycle Theatre in London, said:
This is ridiculous. It has no relevance. The Arts Council is prone to huge
overregulation, as seems to be the case with the whole of society. But the Arts
Council has caught it very badly. They should advance the arts instead of
ticking every box they invent.
Referring to the recent protest over the councils decision to cut the grants
to prominent companies, Simon Callow, the gay actor, said: The Arts Council
comedy continues. What is difficult is to divine to what conceivable use they
could put this information. I love the presence of a category for the Not Known
a despicable heresy, surely, in 2008?
Almost a year ago James Purnell, then the Culture Secretary, vowed to relieve
arts organisations of the burden of meeting crude targets as a condition of
funding. Yet the Arts Councils application form also asks about ethnic
backgrounds.
The council said that the answers were confidential and exempt from release
under the Freedom of Information Act. It said that it does not issue guidelines
on how to persuade board members to reveal details of their sex lives.
var sectionPath = "/Home"; var pat = / /g; var sectionName =
"arts_and_entertainment"; sectionPath = sectionPath + "/" + sectionName;
var pat = / /g; var sectionName = "stage"; sectionPath = sectionPath + "/" +
sectionName; var pat = / /g; var sectionName = "theatre"; sectionPath =
sectionPath + "/" + sectionName; var _hbEC=0,_hbE=new Array;function
_hbEvent(a,b){b=_hbE[_hbEC++]=new Object();b._N=a;b._C=0;return b;} var
hbx=_hbEvent("pv");hbx.vpc="HBX0100u";hbx.gn="tgd.timesonline.co.uk"; // set
vars to be used below var urlReturnCid = ""; var urlReturnAttr = ""; // First,
we load the URL into a variable var url = window.location.href; // Next, split
the url by the # var qparts = url.split("#"); // Check that there is a
querystring if (qparts.length == 2) { // Set the second half of string to var
var query = qparts[1]; // Next, split that string by the "&" var varQ =
query.split(""); if (varQ.length == 2) { // Lastly split by = and assign to vars
var retQ1 = varQ[0].split("="); var retQ2 = varQ[1].split("="); urlReturnCid =
retQ1[1]; urlReturnAttr = retQ2[1]; } } //BEGIN EDITABLE SECTION
//CONFIGURATION VARIABLES hbx.acct="DM5308072BEF";//ACCOUNT NUMBER(S)
hbx.pn="";//PAGE NAME(S) hbx.mlc="";//MULTI-LEVEL CONTENT CATEGORY
hbx.pndef="title";//DEFAULT PAGE NAME hbx.ctdef="full";//DEFAULT CONTENT
CATEGORY //OPTIONAL PAGE VARIABLES //ACTION SETTINGS hbx.fv="";//FORM
VALIDATION MINIMUM ELEMENTS OR SUBMIT FUNCTION NAME hbx.lt="none";//LINK
TRACKING hbx.dlf="n";//DOWNLOAD FILTER hbx.dft="n";//DOWNLOAD FILE NAMING
hbx.elf="n";//EXIT LINK FILTER //SEGMENTS AND FUNNELS hbx.seg="";//VISITOR
SEGMENTATION hbx.fnl="";//FUNNELS //CAMPAIGNS hbx.cmp=urlReturnCid;//CAMPAIGN
ID hbx.cmpn="";//CAMPAIGN ID IN QUERY hbx.dcmp="";//DYNAMIC CAMPAIGN ID
hbx.dcmpn="";//DYNAMIC CAMPAIGN ID IN QUERY hbx.dcmpe="";//DYNAMIC CAMPAIGN
EXPIRATION hbx.dcmpre="";//DYNAMIC CAMPAIGN RESPONSE EXPIRATION
hbx.hra=urlReturnAttr;//RESPONSE ATTRIBUTE
hbx.hqsr="";//RESPONSE ATTRIBUTE IN REFERRAL QUERY hbx.hqsp="";//RESPONSE
ATTRIBUTE IN QUERY hbx.hlt="";//LEAD TRACKING hbx.hla="";//LEAD ATTRIBUTE
hbx.gp="";//CAMPAIGN GOAL hbx.gpn="";//CAMPAIGN GOAL IN QUERY
hbx.hcn="";//CONVERSION ATTRIBUTE hbx.hcv="";//CONVERSION VALUE
hbx.cp="null";//LEGACY CAMPAIGN hbx.cpd="";//CAMPAIGN DOMAIN //CUSTOM VARIABLES
hbx.ci="";//CUSTOMER ID hbx.hc1="";//CUSTOM 1 hbx.hc2="";//CUSTOM 2
hbx.hc3="";//CUSTOM 3 hbx.hc4="";//CUSTOM 4 hbx.hrf="";//CUSTOM REFERRER
hbx.pec="";//ERROR CODES //INSERT CUSTOM EVENTS var pattern = / /g; var
pageTitle = "Arts funding row over sex orientation
demands".replace(pattern,"+").replace(//g,"and"); while(pageTitle.indexOf("_")
!= -1){ pageTitle = pageTitle.replace("_","+"); } while(pageTitle.indexOf("'")
!= -1){ pageTitle = pageTitle.replace("'",""); } var pageType = "PRTF"; var
ObjectId = "/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article3663310.ece";
hbx.pn= pageTitle + "+" + pageType + "-" + ObjectId;
sectionPath = sectionPath.replace(pattern,"+").replace(//g,"and");
while(sectionPath.indexOf("_") != -1){ sectionPath =
sectionPath.replace("_","+"); } hbx.mlc = sectionPath;
---------------------------------
Bollywood, fun, friendship, sports and more. You name it, we have it.
