ONE of Liverpool’s most ground-breaking cultural institutions has closed due to a lack of funding.

A Foundation, a major player in the city’s Biennial festival of contemporary art, has shut its Greenland Street gallery as well as its London base and has ceased to operate with immediate effect.

The organisation’s demise comes in the face of sweeping cuts to national public funding of the arts, with further reductions at a local level expected to be announced soon.

Mark Waugh, A Foundation’s executive director, said the closure was due to a lack of Arts Council funding.

He said: “We had a conversation with the Arts Council about money for next year which would make up around 30% of our funding, but they were unable to commit to that. It is particularly sad given that our last exhibition in Liverpool as part of the Biennial attracted 17,000 visitors, which is incredible.”

A Foundation’s closure means international projects planned for this year will not happen.

They include a programme of virtual and real commissions by local artists working with those from Spain and Poland to explore Liverpool’s status as a port city.

A Foundation was set up in 1998 by James Moores, a member of the family that founded the Littlewoods Pools and retail giant, to support the development and exhibition of contemporary art in the city.