Arts Council England

Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have announced further details of the £100 million Catalyst scheme to boost private giving to the cultural sector and build long-term resilience, sustainability and innovation.

Full guidance for applicants has now been published with the first part of the scheme now open for heritage applications.

Eight projects that will harness digital technologies for the benefit of the arts and cultural sector have been selected to receive funding from the Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture, run by Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and NESTA.

Following the launch of the £500,000 fund in early June, 495 projects applied for a total of £28.5 million worth of funding. 18 projects were shortlisted and interviewed before eight were selected to receive funding. The successful organisations are:

The funding for the reworked Renaissance major grants programme - which replaces the MLA's core museums fund - is £20m a year. For the first time, major grants to regional museums will be awarded via an open application process, assessed against published criteria, in a similar fashion to the National portfolio funding process for arts organisations earlier this year.

From 1 October, Arts Council England (ACE) will assume responsibility for museums and libraries following the abolition of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. In advance of this, ACE has published ‘Culture, Knowledge and Understanding’ its policy document for museums and libraries. The document sets out goals and ambitions for the sector including a commitment to “champion the importance of creative experiences to people’s wellbeing”.

Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) have announced a new £500,000 Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture.