Creative Kirklees / News / Tue 30 Jan 2018
ACE announces raft of new funds to develop cultural sector
Arts Council England has announced plans for development funding to sit alongside its National Portfolio investment in 2018 to 2022. These funds create new opportunities for individual artists and organisations in and beyond the National Portfolio. The approach is underpinned by the Arts Council’s strategy – Great Art and Culture for Everyone - and has been informed by the consultation with the arts and culture sector in 2016. The Arts Council will invest £13m more per year in 2018-22 compared to the 2015-18 funding period. Funding is in two major swathes:
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants: £97.3 million per year will now be available for museums, libraries, artists and arts organisations for individual projects. This fund, formerly named Grants for the Arts will be called Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants to better reflect its source of funding.
£14m per year of this will be reserved to support nationally significant projects of £100k and above, including some of the activity previously supported by the Ambition for Excellence and Strategic Touring funds. National Portfolio Organisations will be able to apply to this reserved strand of funding. Detailed applicant guidelines will be published on the 12 February.
Arts Council Development Funds: The Arts Council’s strategic funds will be renamed to reflect the focus on diversity, resilience, innovation in business models, leadership development and creating more pathways for a wider range of people to become part of the arts and culture sector. (Goals 3 and 4 in the Arts Council’s strategy.)
A further commitment of £37m over four years has been made to flagship programme, Creative People and Places, which targets areas with traditionally low engagement in art and culture.
There will be one round of large capital funding opening with a budget of £30m in 2020/21 and an annual small capital funding programme of £44m during 2018-22. Overall, the Arts Council National Lottery Development funds will receive £72.2m per year.
A number of new Development Funds will be announced later this year, the first of these will encourage ambitious work from individual artists: Developing Your Creative Practice will be a £3.6m annual fund. This programme has been specifically designed to support individual artists, who will be able to apply for grants of £2,000-10,000 from April 2018.
The National Portfolio takes up the biggest proportion of Arts Council funding. In June 2017 the Arts Council announced that its 2018-22 National Portfolio would be its largest yet, with 830 organisations and an additional £42.4 million investment. £170 million more will go outside London over four years. It will also welcome more small and diverse organisations, and 183 new entrants, including 20 that have progressed from its Elevate programme, which helps develop diverse organisations.