Arts Council England

The increasing pressure on arts organisations to diversify their funding base has led to a massive upswing in additional funding, with Arts Council England’s NPOs raising £217m in 2015/16 through donations, sponsorship and membership - an increase of £31m on the previous year. For every pound of DCMS grant-in-aid funds awarded to the national portfolio, 77p was raised through fundraising.

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The city of Leicester will house a three-year pilot programme from 2018, before a national rollout of the new Creative Talent Plan. The initiative is focused on spotting and developing talent at an early age, and seeks to address growing inequalities of access to the creative sector.

ACE CEO Darren Henley explained that the initiative was about giving “any young person … the right help at the crucial points in their creative evolution”.

After 28 years at the head of Tate, Sir Nick Serota has taken on the role of ACE chair, acknowledging the “many challenges” faced by the arts and positioning himself as “an unequivocal champion of the benefits of public investment”.

Serota said: “I’m an unequivocal champion of the benefits of public investment; the creative freedom of artists and institutions, and the arms-length principle”.

The Prosper programme will be open to 70 organisations across England, funded by Arts Council England and delivered by Creative United, the Arts Marketing Association (AMA) and the Centre for Business in Society (CBiS at Coventry University). A timetable for applications and regional launch events will be announced early this year.

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Arts Council England has published its funding plans for 2018-22. These include an increase in the funds available for Grants for the Arts and details for applications to be included in its National Portfolio of Organisations.

A new category of Sector Support Organisations is to be created along with a banding structure for funded organisations to reduce the bureaucratic requirements on smaller organisations.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has announced a “tailored review” of Arts Council England and is asking for feedback on the organisation’s functions, efficiency and effectiveness.

The deadline for feedback is 20 September 2016.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tailored-review-of-arts-council-england

Changes will be made to Arts Council England’s investment priorities after over 1,000 responses to its survey.

ACE has set out the following changes:

A new report investigating the nature of arts funding has called for a shift in funding, language and focus from “Great Art for Everyone” to “Great Arts by, for and with Everyone”. The report, commissioned by the Arts Council calls on the funder to focus on wellbeing and to address funding inequality from large cultural institutions to smaller, grassroots community practice.

Arts Council England has launched the second round of its Research Fund designed to deepen knowledge and understanding of the impact of art and culture, and the role it plays in our experience as individuals and a society.

A new report has revealed a £236m or 17% decline in local authority cultural spending since 2010. London boroughs saw the largest cuts in arts and culture spending; 19 per cent between 2010 and 2015.