Arts Council Money Diverted for Private Statue Stunt!

Did you miss Sandwell Arts Festival [sic] this Summer? You will not be alone! It was a pathetic "hole in the corner" affair not pushed by Labour Sandwell Council nor by its idiotic "leader", Darren Cooper.

Sandwell Labour have cut the £1.4m per annum arts monies that went to The Public. The Museum Service is negligible, the Library service is being decimated and there is very little other money spent on arts/culture whereas the spend on sport continues to rise inexorably despite the alleged "cuts".

Sandwell Labour and Sandwell College are STILL fighting hard to keep the details of The Public "deal" secret even when they say it is "brilliant for Sandwell". Ask yourselves why? Fortunately, Mr Darryl Magher has been asking questions and his appeal to the Information Commissioner about the failure of these two publicly-funded organisations to tell us the truth is ongoing.......

And so the comrades invested just £9,000 in the Arts Festival but even then they managed to get the Arts Council to stump up £4,140 of that. Quite why the Arts Council would grant any monies to SMBC noting their recent track record is surprising and, inevitably, their trust has been abused. (Incidentally, I wonder if the Arts Council has ever written to Cooper to ask him to explain his infamous tweets of 5th July, 2013 which appear to imply that SMBC shafted the original funders of The Public - including the Arts Council - to get hold of the iconic new building with absolutely no intention of it remaining an arts and community centre?*)

Regulars readers will please forgive me if I provide a little background here to Skidder newcomers with regard to the so-called "Celebration Statue" appeal - a private project to erect in central West Brom a naff statue of West Bromwich Albion's magnificent "Three Degrees". The whole thing is run by Mr Jim Cadman - see my blogs about all this - 3rd August, 2014 "The Darren Cooper Celebration Statue Appeal" and 13th August, 2014 "Jim Cadman - Statue Entrepreneur". The oafish Cooper - self-styled "voice" of all Baggies fans - has very publicly used his Council position to promote this thing and so it came as no surprise when a Skidder Freedom of Information Act request flushed out that the Labour Council had diverted £30,000 (yes, thirty THOUSAND pounds) of public money (without any actual public consultation) into Jim's private appeal fund. (Incidentally, I am still waiting to see the accounts from other statue appeals that Mr Cadman has been involved with....)

£30k of public money and counting!

One of the main sales pitches for this statue is that it is somehow part of an "anti-racism" campaign. This line has been pushed to SMBC and to cash-rich bodies like the excellent Kick It Out organisation who are on the look-out to financially support anti-racism initiatives with ample funds from the FA, Premier League etc. It is entirely coincidental that Jim's other major project at this time is for a statue in Sandwell's twin socialist paradise of, er, Rotherham where he is using exactly the same shtick to raise money for a statue of  Arthur Wharton, "the first black professional footballer". It is not possible to describe me as racist as I am not but there have already been "warnings" made that my opposition to the costs and governance issues surrounding the diversion of public funds to this project is "undermining the anti-racism campaign". The smear campaign appears to have begun.......

Not content with quietly diverting £30,000 of public money to this nonsense, Labour then decided to hold two publicity stunts in West Brom's New Square to push it. They cynically used the Arts Festival as cover with the self-seeking Cooper and SMBC's Press Office playing a very active role in all this aspect of the events via press releases, social media etc. At least £844 more of public money (including the Arts Council grant) was diverted to get actors (some of whom I believe were black) to "gold-up" in a grotesque "reverse" minstrel show and pose as a human maquette of the proposed private statue (even though the statue, if ever completed, will have a mid-brown patination and will NOT be bronze or gold). A peculiar way to get the alleged "anti-racism" message across you may think!

This was all done on two separate days to give it maximum publicity. Needless to say the narcissistic Cooper scurried down to New Square for yet another photo-opportunity:

Egomaniac gets in on the act!

It seems that Labour Sandwell are still employing one Garry Morris as their arts supremo but one must wonder why if there is no or no significant arts budget. Sharp-eyed readers will have noted, however, that Morris was one of the Haden House mob - the band of SMBC officials who did the bidding of their political masters and voted to close The Public. This "objective appraisal" was made 13 days AFTER Labour had already announced the closure of The Public and its "deal" with the College**. One favour deserves another...

Although the public bodies are so anxious to keep their deal secret SMBC have been forced to continue some arts provision via the College so that they could get consent from the European Regional Development Fund and the successors to Advantage West Midlands to destroy the splendid building. We have been told that in place of £1.4m per annum, SMBC have pledged £1.5m over 10 years (and then nothing) for an "arts partnership" with Sandwell College (to INCLUDE the "festival" funding). But the College has had Cooper's pants down in all the negotiations to date (not funny, unfortunately, as it is all taxpayers' money at play here) and there is already speculation whether the College are really interested in any of this and also whether this small rump of arts provision will provide a job for one Garry Morris. Significantly SMBC (NOT the College) were advertising a tender last week for 4 pop-up banners for the new joint "Arts Cafe" at a modest £3,000 (yes, you read it right - three THOUSAND pounds). Potential suppliers were to contact, er, Garry Morris of SMBC!

Let hope that the next time the Arts Council shakes on a deal with Sandwell Labour it counts its fingers afterwards.

Oh, and by the way, Garry Morris is the son of Labour "aristocrat", Lord (Bill) Morris of Handsworth.

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e   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com                                       t   @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

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*   See my post 18th December, 2013, "The Public - Odds and Sods".

** See my post 11th June, 2014, "The Public - The Plot Thickens....".