Wigmore Hall to withdraw from ACE’s National Portfolio

London’s Wigmore Hall will leave Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Portfolio in April next year, saying it has raised enough from private donors to free itself from the funder’s “onerous” requirements.

The venue’s decision comes soon after ACE asked the government to extend its current portfolio funding period for a further year until 2028, and follows five previous departures from the current portfolio – which began in April 2023.

A year ago, the 550-seat concert hall launched a fundraising campaign to “secure the future” of the venue, aiming to raise £10m by 2027 and £20m within a decade.

The hall’s artistic director John Gilhooly told media that the £10m target has already been met, meaning the charity no longer requires the approximately £345,000 it currently receives annually from ACE.

Gilhooly told The Times the organisation had reached “the stage where we are better off being independent”, with the private fundraising allowing it to “remain artistically ambitious”.

He said that accounting for the spending of the ACE grant took up “a huge amount” of the attention of trustees and staff, who he said were not the “hugest fans” of ACE’s Let’s Create strategy.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Gilhooly said the quarterly reporting required by ACE “zaps creativity”, claiming that “you can feel the energy lifting” among staff “because we’ve told them that within 12 months, they won’t have to do this”.

‘Deep unhappiness’ with Let’s Create strategy

Gilhooly claimed ACE’s strategy requires cultural organisations to “step in” to fill a gap in musical provision in schools. He said the ACE grant amounts to about 2% of Wigmore Hall’s income from concerts and was spent entirely on work with communities.

“We totally agree with community outreach but when you add up the people that every NPO [funded by the Arts Council] reaches, then there are still millions of disenfranchised children that get nothing,” he told The Times.

“There is a systemic problem with music in the classroom and the Let’s Create strategy is, effectively, asking us to step in. But we can’t solve those problems. ACE is aware that there is deep unhappiness about this.”

“You can have excellent community choirs but you can’t then apply that same criteria to the Olympic athletes of the music world,” Gilhooly added.

“Opera singers should go into school to work with children but what they are doing on stage should not be judged by the same criteria.”

But he added that “it is with a heavy heart we are leaving,” saying: “I admire so much of what [ACE] stands for. And if it wasn’t as onerous maybe we would come back. A temporary separation and not a divorce I hope.”

Gilhooly made the comments as Wigmore Hall unveiled its 2025-26 programme, which includes nearly 600 concerts and events to mark its 125^th year.

A spokesperson for ACE said Wigmore Hall would remain in the National Portfolio until the end of the current funding period in 2026.

Last year, ACE announced it would extend its current portfolio until 2027.

Following this, last week ACE asked the government to extend the funding period for a further year until 2028.

Arts Professional has contacted Wigmore Hall for comment.