Creative Sector Services CIC will enable the three services currently run by ArtCo Trading Ltd to receive Lottery funds.
The three services currently delivered by Arts Council England’s (ACE) trading arm, ArtCo Trading Ltd, are being moved into a new independent Community Interest Company (CIC) to enable them to benefit from Lottery funding – something that isn’t possible for a wholly owned subsidiary of ACE. The three programmes concerned are designed to generate business growth, especially for the benefit of small businesses, individual artists and creative practitioners: Own Art and Take it Away provide interest free loans for the purchase of art and musical instruments, and Creative Industry Finance offers business development support and access to loans of up to £25,000 for small and medium size creative industry enterprises.
The new organisation, known as Creative Sector Services CIC, will be in a position to develop additional income streams to support its activity, including private giving, equity investment, and commercial income, and a budget of £1.3m has been earmarked for delivering the three current services in 2013/14. The Creative Industry Finance pilot programme, currently running in London and Yorkshire, was due to end on 31 March this year but has now been extended for a further 12 months. In its pilot year, £400k was lent to 27 small creative businesses, which leveraged a further £250k of loan funding from other sources. The new company is exploring the possibility of scaling the programme up to cover the whole of England.