The vote took place at a meeting attended by around 500 people, including Sir Ian McKellen, Kevin Spacey, Sheila Hancock, Caroline Quentin, Joanna Lumley, Roger Lloyd Pack, Samantha Bond, Alison Steadman and Jonathan Pryce.

The arts world has been angered by cuts which will axe or reduce funding to 194 organisations Arts Council England currently funds. It is proposing to begin funding 80 new projects.

To cries of "shame", Peter Hewitt, the Arts Council England chief executive, attempted to justify the cuts at the packed meeting organised by the union Equity.

Those who gathered at the Young Vic Theatre in London said the consultation period over the cuts had been too brief and the proposals shrouded in secrecy. And they accused the Arts Council of failing to make clear what criteria it was using to make the cuts.

Actor Patrick Malahide said the Arts Council had become an agency "for social change" and that it was no longer fit for purpose.

Van Helsing star Samuel West stated: "Cut funding to our smaller spaces and you eventually starve our larger ones to death."

Christine Payne, general secretary of Equity, welcomed the extra money the Government had made available to the Arts Council over the next three years.

But she told the audience: "Unless Arts Council England not only listens to the concerns of people here today but actually takes action to respond to them then the credibility of Arts Council England could be fundamentally and possibly irreparably damaged.

"We demand a thorough review of the process and procedures used by the Arts Council in reaching funding decisions, and until that review is completed the status quo should apply and the current funding process should cease."