A collaboration between public and private sector partners has established The Arts Impact Fund, a new £7million initiative designed to demonstrate the potential for social investment in arts. The fund offers repayable finance to arts organisations working in England that can show that they have a positive impact on society.
Arts Council England has launched an advocacy toolkit for arts organisations. It features a range of guidance for organisations wishing to work with the media and policy-makers to make the case for arts.
Arts Council England has launched a new Research Grants Programme, which aims to provide opportunities for the arts sector to engage in collaborative research to explore the impact that arts and culture can have on social outcomes.
The funding will support the arts and research sectors to examine measurable impacts of culture on the economy, health and wellbeing, society and education. Successful applicants will promote greater collaboration and co-operation between the arts and cultural sector and research partners.
Arts Council England has published a research study to assess the connection between arts engagement and people’s happiness. The research analyses data from Mappiness– an iPhone app that allows users to record their own wellbeing.
The report, by economists Daniel Fujiwara and George MacKerron, found that people recording their experience of arts and culture activities score highly in terms of both positive effects on happiness and relaxation, above leisure activities like watching TV or drinking alcohol.
Arts Council England has appointed Darren Henley to take over as Chief Executive from Alan Davey. Henley has been in charge of Classic FM for the past 15 years and has also led two reviews into music education for the government.
He will take over this spring, in the meantime Althea Efunshile is Acting Chief Executive. Alan Davey has left to head up Radio 3.
Arts Council England has issued a warning to arts organisations that their funding will be affected if they fail to act on diversity.
The warning follows the publication of a new literature and evidence review into diversity in arts and culture. The report establishes a baseline of data, evidence and research about equality and diversity across the arts and cultural sector. It offers a snapshot of current trends and challenges across four key themes: arts and cultural audiences, arts and cultural participation, workforce, and access to finance.
Arts Council England has published a new document outlining the benefits of the arts. Create: A journal of perspectives on the value of art and culture includes an essay by John Ashton, President of the Faculty of Public Health who argues that wellbeing and the arts are inextricably linked.
A group of independent authors have assessed Arts Council spending and concluded that funding is still biased towards large organisations and skewed towards London over regional arts activity.
Arts Council England is planning the launch of a £3m research grants programme to build and improve the evidence base around the value, impacts and benefits of arts and culture. From next April, ACE will invite research proposals to develop the evidence base for the impact of arts and culture.
We are happy to share that, alongside our partners the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA), we have re-imagined Creativity & Wellbeing Week 2020.
