Arts funding

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has said she is examining a "variety" of alternative sources for the funding of the BBC amid a review into the corporation’s funding arrangements.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said that the licence fee "isn’t the only way” to fund the BBC.

“We are reviewing the licence fee. I’ve started that review,” she said. “We will be looking very closely at its funding arrangement. I do think it might need to look at a variety of sources for its funding.”

Under former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, the licence fee was frozen at £159 until April 2024. Dorries said she wanted to find a new funding model before 2027, when the current deal expires, calling the existing model “completely outdated”.  

Speaking separately on Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Frazer also dismissed calls to remove political interference from the appointment of a new BBC Chair.

She said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will appoint the “best candidate”, regardless of any political ties, to replace Richard Sharp.

Sharp recently resigned as Chair after failing to disclose that he had helped to secure former Prime Minister Boris Johnson an £800,000 loan.

Frazer spoke after opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer said that Labour would replace the government’s power to appoint the chair with an independent process.

“We will be looking for the best candidate,” Frazer said. “I strongly believe that we should not disqualify people from public office who put themselves forward, who are capable of doing the job, because they happen to have in the past supported a political party.”
 

Falmouth University has been awarded £850,000 in research funding to undertake an immersive archives project capturing Cornwall’s cultural heritage.

The project will use cutting-edge technologies to capture and archive performance practice, exploring new ways to widen access and provide new income streams to support Cornwall’s creative industries.

The funding comes from the AHRC's Creative Research Capability Fund, part of UK Research and Innovation.

GWITHA, from the Cornish word to guard, or to keep, will establish an open centre for immersive approaches to archival practice in the performance space. The project aims to capture and preserve performances that have previously been difficult or impossible to document because of their transient nature. 

Cornwall is renowned for site-specific landscape theatre that is challenging to document and record, making the project particularly relevant in a local context.

The project will employ technologies including augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, working with artists and performance companies to capture sound and vision in three dimensions.

It will also use the archives housed at Falmouth University to build a digital infrastructure capturing the collections of material objects, textual artefacts and the documentation of performance practice, with a goal of improving access and developing strategies for new income streams from these new digital assets in support of local creative industries.

“We are committed to being the leading university for the nexus of creativity and technology and I can’t think of a project that would encapsulate this better,” said Emma Hunt, Falmouth University Vice Chancellor.
 
Dr Lee Miller, Head of Postgraduate Research at Falmouth University said the project “will allow Falmouth to build a sector leading approach to the capturing, preservation and accessing of resistant archival objects. 

“It will also provide an infrastructure to better capture and share Cornwall’s intangible cultural heritage,” he added.

The British Film Institute (BFI) has announced a new package of industry support for awardees who can demonstrate that they are positively contributing to tackling the climate and ecological crisis.

Keir Powell-Lewis has been appointed Head of Environmental Sustainability to manage the fund, as part of BFI’s own net zero routemap.

The BFI National Lottery Sustainable Screen Fund has awarded £586,755 to industry leaders Julie’s Bicycle and BAFTA albert, to fund projects running over the next three years.

The funding will be used to support all BFI National Lottery awardees in building environmental understanding and action on positive environmental change.

Support for awardees will include tools and resources provided by each organisation, including open-access carbon calculators.

Julie’s Bicycle will offer support in the areas of audiences, screen heritage, skills, education, international projects and innovation and industry services.

BAFTA albert will aid in production across the wider screen sector, including film, XR/immersive and video games.

The funding will also allow the two organisations to further define the support needed to ensure that BFI awardees can track their environmental impact, seek sustainability certification and access relevant guidance on how to deliver projects more sustainably. 

“As the world faces a climate and ecological emergency it is vital we work with the screen sector with urgency to reduce the sector’s environmental impact and efforts to reach net zero,” said Harriet Finney, BFI Deputy CEO and Executive Director of Corporate & Industry Affairs.

“During the public consultation for our new 10-year BFI National Lottery Strategy and Funding Plan, the message was unquestionably that support for helping the industry tackle climate emergency was a priority and has been embedded as a core principle guiding our activities and funding.

“The range of tried and tested tools and resources developed by BAFTA albert and Julie’s Bicycle and their ambition, experience and expertise in further innovation and guidance for the sector will help us all work faster and better in contributing a positive impact towards tackling the climate crisis.”
 

An exhibition touring network will be established to develop and tour exhibitions across a dozen sites in England after securing funding from Arts Council England (ACE) and Art Fund.

The Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring (MAGNET) brings together 12 partners across England, plus the Touring Exhibitions Group (TEG), to co-develop new exhibitions which will tour between partner venues.

It has been awarded a £336,000 Touring Projects grant from ACE to enable it to develop and tour three new exhibitions, opening in 2025. 

Meanwhile, £75,000 from Art Fund will help fund a three-year full-time MAGNET Coordinator post, to ensure smooth running of the network. 

The new network aims to allow exhibitions to be seen by many more people, as well as addressing the unsustainability of "single use" exhibitions. The three-year funding deal will also see MAGNET develop a sustainable business model to allow future touring to other partner venues and the creation of further exhibitions.

Nick Merriman, Chief Executive of the Horniman Museum and Gardens and MAGNET lead, said: "There is now real momentum and a nationwide movement to support touring exhibitions. 

"We know that, by pooling our resources, we can offer high-quality, co-curated exhibitions that make the collections of the whole network accessible to the public in a meaningful way. 

"Thanks to Arts Council England and Art Fund we can now continue MAGNET’s reach beyond the walls and vaults of any one museum and into local communities around the country."