From big names to fringe venues

Cultural institutions across the country have been "wiped off the map" by Arts Council England's funding cuts, announced yesterday. Regular funding to 206 arts organisations, from fringe theatres to poetry societies and renowned organisations in dance and art, has been axed.

Derby Theatre, London's Riverside Studios, Exeter Northcott Theatre and The Dartington Hall Trust – where the precursor to ACE was first conceived – are among those losing funding from April 2012. London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and Almeida Theatre are high-profile casualties, suffering annual funding cuts of around 40 per cent.

"I have no doubt there will be a great deal of discussion and argument over whether we have made the right decisions," said Arts Council chairwoman Dame Elizabeth Forgan. "We have always been open and transparent."

Of the 791 organisations which ACE previously regularly financed, 585 will continue to receive regular funding between 2012 and 2015. Around 1,300 arts organisations in total applied for funding under new terms imposed by ACE, after the Government cut its funding last year. ACE will also fund 110 new organisations.

Major arts organisations like the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera House and National Theatre were hit with reductions of around 15 per cent. The English National Opera had a smaller reduction of around 11 per cent, which an Arts Council spokesperson said was due to its business model being "still in development".

The Dartington Hall Trust lost its entire £600,000 funding for its wide-ranging performing arts schedule. Ironically it was here during the Second World War that the Arts Council was first conceived as the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts. It was incorporated under Royal Charter as the modern organisation in 1946.

"We were surprised to get nothing but Dartington has been running for 80 years, well before subsidies and as an organisation we have a mixed funding base," said the organisation's director of arts, David Francis. "It means that people who want to work here will have to bring some money with them."

Another surprise was the Theatre Royal Wakefield – which this month revealed it had recruited one of the country's most frequently performed playwrights, John Godber, to the venue. Executive director Murray Edwards said the decision to reject its application for £94,000 funding would impact on plans for a "resident season" of Godber's new work. Smaller arts organisations such as the Poetry Book Society, founded by TS Eliot in 1953 to provide poetry information, and music outreach organisation Asian Music Circuit, have also seen their funding completely pulled.

"The news goes beyond shocking and touches on the realms of the disgusting," said Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, discussing the Poetry Book Society's cuts. "This fatal cut is a national shame and a scandal and I urge everyone who cares about poetry to join the PBS as a matter of urgency."

"We have been told we have been wiped off the map which is a very difficult thing to accept," said Asian Music Circuit chief executive Viram Jasani. "We were actually set up at the Arts Council's behest in the 1980s, so this decision doesn't make any sense at all."