Amidst the debate about the sale of the Assembly Rooms, it’s easy to forget that the disposal of the Haven Arts Centre is progressing quietly along in the background.
Remember the Haven?
The big glass box of art and artefacts -  a twee subtitle that doomed it from the start.
This two million pound disaster opened in 2005, and closed again in 2010 in a cost-cutting measure by Boston Borough Council, having completely failed to engage the interest of the Boston public.
In modern artistic terms, when critics swoon over someone’s soiled bed – or half a sheep in a glass case filled with formaldehyde, the Haven debacle conjures up for us the image of the great and the good throwing money down the  drain.
But it seems that those same great and good never learn from their mistakes.
On Friday, Boston Borough Council's website chortled the announcement that a three-year arts project for Boston and South Holland has won a £2,592,183 grant from the Arts Council.
The bid for the money was made by the “South Holland and Boston Creative People and Places Arts Consortium” – no, don’t laugh, titter ye not - “to take art of all forms out to the community and into often isolated rural areas where access can be limited.”
Chief chortler was Boston Borough Council's portfolio holder for leisure services, Councillor Yvonne Gunter, who called it “a fantastic achievement …  a great chance to expand the arts and the range of opportunities … which … shows we already have a talented group with a real understanding of the arts to work alongside."
We’re surprised that Council Leader Peter Bedford wasn’t the person to be quoted as front of the house on this - a major grant for the area – as there is black hole in the cabinet list of portfolio holders … into which culture has disappeared almost without trace.
Councillor Gunter’s full title is portfolio holder for leisure services, parks and open spaces, country parks and reserves, playing fields, tree management, crematoria and cemeteries, allotments and grounds maintenance – which has an outdoorsy feel about it, but doesn’t conjure up the arts.
For all their faults, the Bypass Independents included some cerebral stuff  within their cabinet brief – with a portfolio for Community Cohesion and Cultural Services.
Oddly, the grant recipient of the Arts Council largesse is listed as “artsNK” - with other consortium members comprising South Lincs Community and Voluntary Service and the Lincolnshire Artists Forum.
The three-year programme, called Transported, will aim to take “art” to the villages and estates of South Lincolnshire and much further afield.  Equipment and training will be “transported to artists to inspire new, ambitious projects.”
There will be “consultation with local people, producing unique arts events and opportunities that will see the area developing a leading role in the arts regionally and nationally.”
The project will trade on our position at the centre of the food production and processing industries - especially the haulage industry, transporting art across Europe on the sides of lorries.
“Talks have already begun about large-scale photographic commissions on vehicles that criss-cross Europe, connecting our local work force with the places and cultures the lorries travel to,” we are told.
Transported will “develop inventive ways of getting people involved in the arts where they live, meet and work, providing inspirational experiences and empowering local people to take the lead in shaping their own arts provision.
“The innovative programme covers Boston and South Holland, bringing together partnerships of community groups, haulage companies, employers and artists to ensure that every village, estate and community has access to high quality arts.
“As part of the project, lorries and vans will be transformed into flexible artwork and arts spaces, touring to local festivals, schools, workplaces, towns and villages, providing opportunities for people to get involved with art on their doorstep.
Peter Knott, Director, Arts Council England, said: “Boston and South Holland are areas of low engagement with the arts … “
He’s spot on as far as that is concerned - but the rest of his quote that “this scheme is designed to address that issue” could well be deemed fanciful.
The only ray of hope in this is that now that the South Lincs Community and Voluntary Service has got its fingers in a new till, it might give Boston Borough Council ratepayers bit of a break.
SLVCS is a regular snout at the Boston Borough Council trough.
It receives a huge grant each year – but it is never enough.
Among other things, since January, it has hijacked £5,000 towards the Boston Community Showcase and a further £1,000 to celebrate volunteering week – by encouraging people to chalk on the pavement outside the Len Medlock centre.
Hopefully, now it has managed to have a say in the wasting of another three million pounds, it might feel satisfied for the time being.
Boston is desperately in neeed of real  financial support  - not the fanciful, nonsensical, time wasting tosh offered by the Arts Council which is sponged up by the South Lincs Community and Voluntary Service and its like.

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