Finance

There will be no fees for applicants who make it to the second round of acting auditions at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) this year.

The conservatoire said it wants everyone to be able to audition regardless of background or financial situation.

Although there is still a £5 administration fee for the initial audition, it says the subsequent £30 fee has been removed: "We know that £30 can be a steep cost for some, especially if the applicant is applying to several schools."

Sonia Watson-Fowler, ALRA’s Director of Culture and Creativity, called it "a small yet necessary step towards the long-term goal of creating and maintaining a more inclusive organisation".

Eleven museum professionals will share a £302,500 fund aimed at deepening their knowledge of chosen collections.

The Headley Fellowship with Art Fund programme, administered by the Headley Trust and Art Fund, has supported 22 curators since its inception in 2018. This year’s cohort represents museums across England and Scotland and collections of textiles, Scottish pottery and Egyptology, among others.

The fund covers the cost of filling a curator’s post for up to six months and up to £4,000 to support each fellow’s professional development.

The curators will organise exhibitions, digitise collections and share knowledge between museums.

“With this support, [curators] can take time away from the growing day-to-day pressures of their roles to focus on research that will lead to new ways to engage the public with their collections,” said Headley Trust’s Helen McLeod.

Creative Scotland has opened applications to its Radical Care Fund, a £75,000 project aiming to improve working conditions for creatives with caregiving responsibilities.

Grants of between £3,000 and £15,000 are available to creative organisations and businesses looking to support these creatives.

Creative Scotland’s Ashley Smith-Hammond says the fund will address challenges including unsocial working hours, fluctuating patterns of work and higher than average levels of freelancing.

“All of these elements combine to create barriers for people working in the arts, screen and creative industries to manage work and care responsibilities. We hope that this fund will help to rethink fair working systems and improve peoples’ work/life balance.” 

Applications close on 26 November, with between five and fifteen projects to be chosen for funding in the week commencing 20 December.

A report into worldwide royalties estimates collections in music, visual arts, drama and literature could decline by up to 35% this year.

The annual Global Collections Report, published by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), cites Covid-19 as the reason for the decline.

The report also shows the US to have the highest market share of royalty collections, followed by France, Japan and Germany.

The UK ranks fifth, with a market share of 8.4%. Its year-on-year growth in collections is 12.3%, meaning the UK is currently outperforming the global market.

CISAC Director General Gadi Oron attributed the UK's growth in royalty collections to copyright collective PRS for Music’s investment in systems and networks.

"It’s the UK talent, it’s the fact that collections around the world are improving and more royalties are repatriated."

Event organisers say they have been unable to obtain quotes for the Government's Live Events Reinsurance Scheme. 

Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) Chief Executive Paul Reed confirmed cover does not stretch to festivals that cancel if capacity restrictions are reintroduced.

"The scheme only covers you in the event of a civil authority shutdown at either local or national level, so it is extremely limited in scope."

The £750m scheme also doesn't cover artists or workforces scheduled for cancelled festivals.

A recent study found 58% of AIF members are not likely to pursue quotes for the scheme.

"They [the Government] want far too much money and there are too many caveats in it," Reed added.

"I think they just keep paying us lip service like they have done all the way down the line."