News

Sunderland Music Arts and Culture Trust has received more than £300,000 for a music initiative designed to provide people from diverse backgrounds with full access to educational and cultural events.

A total of £300,000 has been provided for the Sunderland Music City project from a social investment fund for the North East of England established by Northstar Ventures and £37,500 from the County Durham Community Foundation.

MAC Trust currently organises several major events in Sunderland, including Summer Streets, in partnership with Sunderland Council and Arts Council England.

Through Music City, the trust hopes to establish and brand Sunderland as a 'music city', using music, audiences and venues to help change people's cultural experiences in the city and the region, make it a more vibrant place and somewhere musical talent want to study and live.

Paul Callaghan, Chair of MAC Trust, said: "By developing and supporting music we can help the city and the region in several important ways through job creation, economic and artistic growth, tourism development, reputation and brand building. 

"It will involve not just the music community but also the education and public sectors, voluntary bodies, and the community at large covering all musical genres, all ages and everyone who wants to play, sing, or listen."

Two literary festivals in Glasgow have been cancelled after a funding application to Creative Scotland was unsuccessful.

Glasgow Life, the charity that runs the Aye Write and Wee Write festivals, said the events will not take place this year after it failed to secure financial support from the public body.

"While bids from events for funding support continue to exceed monies available—especially during the current difficult economic climate—some events will inevitably miss out, and we recognise that decision-making around funding award recipients is extremely challenging," the charity's website said.

"Unfortunately, our 2024 funding application to Creative Scotland was not successful, so Aye Write and Wee Write will not be able to take place as festivals this year."

The charity added that it will organise some pop-up events during 2024 and develop its funding application for next year.

Scottish authors have been among those raising concerns about the situation.

Val McDermid said it was “profoundly depressing” that Glasgow “cannot sustain a book festival”, while Stuart called it “unacceptable”. O’Hagan said the cancellation is “savage, and it shouldn’t be happening”.

Douglas Stuart also said there was “righteous outrage” over the cancellation.

“I have watched in horror, as Scotland has haggled over funding for the arts, has closed her libraries, and now has allowed the cancellation of a major literary festival in her largest city,” he posted on X.

English Heritage and the Trussell Trust have announced a new initiative to provide free days out for people who access food banks. 

Following a successful pilot scheme last summer, people on the lowest incomes will be able to receive a voucher for a free visit to their local English Heritage site alongside their emergency food parcel.

More than 100 food bank centres in the Trussell Trust network and 25 English Heritage properties across England will be taking part in the 2024 partnership. 

English Heritage sites participating in the 2024 scheme include Stonehenge in Wiltshire, Osborne—Queen Victoria’s seaside home—on the Isle of Wight, Corbridge Roman Town on Hadrian’s Wall, and Clifford’s Tower in York.

Nick Merriman, English Heritage’s Chief Executive, said: “As a charity, one of our key aims is to ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy the great historic sites in our care. 

"And although we’ve seen our visitor and member numbers increase, we know that for some, the opportunity of a day out is simply out of reach. 

"We’re really delighted to be teaming up with the Trussell Trust to help those who are often most in need of some time out with their family and friends.”

The offer will be valid until 3 November 2024 and is available to anyone receiving emergency food and support from one of the participating Trussell Trust food banks.

A UK-wide campaign designed to highlight the impact culture and heritage organisations make within their communities in the run-up to the next general election will launch in May.

Established by the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation, the 'Culture Makes…' campaign intends to make the case for culture and as a human right "which urgently needs investment".

More than 40 organisations including Bristol Old Vic, Northern Ballet, and the Southbank Centre have been confirmed as campaign "partners" with the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation calling for all cultural organisations in the UK to join.

Caroline McCormick, Chair of the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation, said: “Cultural and heritage organisations have long wrestled with how to communicate the value and impact of their work. 

"Culture Makes… comes at a critical time enabling us to come together through a clear and simple set of linguistic tools which will allow us to celebrate and raise awareness of the impact of the sector as a whole and the individual contributions each organisation makes with government and policy makers, funders, and our audiences. 

"Our aim is to build an overwhelmingly powerful sector voice that cannot be ignored."
 

The inaugural arts-focused campaign run by match-funding platform Big Give has raised £2.8m.

Operating in partnership with New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture (NPAC), the campaign ran for a week before closing on Tuesday (26 March).

A total of 239 arts organisations were selected to take part in the campaign. Big Give and NPAC have said they focused on ensuring that funds and support are being spread across the country and to as wide a group of charities as possible, particularly those that are small-scale. 

A total of 159 (66%) of the charities participating have an income of £1m or less. And 76% of the charities
work in regions outside of London.

James Reed, Chair of the Big Give's Board of Trustees, said: "Arts charities play a central and crucial role in the lives of the people they support, and their time and services are being called upon now more than ever. 

"They have endured many cuts and disappointments, so securing funding for the charities from our match funders and the public is especially important."

Creative Scotland has deferred decision-making for its Open Fund for Individuals by up to four weeks while conducting an internal review to identify areas for improvement in its awarding process.

The move follows public and political fallout after its decision to award £85,000 to a controversial film featuring actors in “non-simulated” sex scenes. 

Scottish Parliament has launched a separate probe into Creative Scotland’s decision to back the project, asking the funding body to provide MSPs with details of the full criteria and process for handling funding applications.

Creative Scotland has revoked its support for the film and is seeking recovery of the funding.

A statement from Creative Scotland said that the review of its Open Fund for Individuals will result in “a short, temporary extension to existing timelines to enable additional assurance on applications that are recommended for funding.”

It confirmed that the process would not affect projects already issued a funding contract and aimed to “minimise impact on applicants”.
 

The British Museum is suing a former curator of Greek and Roman Art, alleging that they stole or damaged more than 2,000, mainly unregistered, artefacts from its collection. 

The museum’s lawyer, Daniel Burgess, said Higgs, who was fired in 2023, “abused his position of trust” and took the items, including ancient gems and gold jewellery, over a 10-year period, according to the Associated Press.

Burgess alleged that Higgs tried to conceal his activities by using fake names and documents, manipulating museum records and undervaluing items when he resold them.

Higgs, who has not yet been charged in a separate ongoing police investigation, denies the allegations. He did not attend a hearing on March 26 because of poor health, but Associated Press reports that he intends to dispute the British Museum’s claim.

The museum has said 351 stolen items have been returned, with 300 further missing items identified.

Orders from High Court judge Heather Williams require Higgs to list or return any items from the museum still in his possession within four weeks and to disclose his records from eBay and PayPal.

The theft of around 1,500 Greek and Roman objects by a British Museum employee between 1993 and 2022 first emerged in August 2023, causing considerable reputational damage to the organisation and resulting in the resignations of Director Hartwig Fischer and Deputy Director Jonathan Williams.

An independent review into thefts has made a series of recommendations to the museum on risk management, auditing, governance and security, as well as introducing a comprehensive register of all eight million items in its collections.

Several arts leaders representing Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations have faced criticism after The Guardian revealed they hold membership to the exclusive, all-male Garrick Club.

Alex Beard, the Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, which receives ACE’s largest individual investment of over £22m per year, has been named a member, as has the Chair at English National Opera, Harry Brünjes, the Artistic Director of the Wigmore Hall, John Gilhooly, and the Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano.

A spokesperson for Her Ensemble, an organisation that campaigns for equality in classical music, said the presence of many leading figures on the membership list “ultimately undermines a lot of the progress that the industry is making and encourages inequality.”

In a statement to The Guardian, ACE said, “Personal memberships of this kind are a matter for the individuals concerned”. 

ACE added that as a distributor of public money, “we make clear that we expect our investment to support cultural experiences and job opportunities to be available for everyone in England, irrespective of where they live, their background or how much money they have in their pocket”.

Jude Kelly, former Artistic Director of Southbank Centre and founder of the Women of the World Foundation, said senior figures in the arts should resign their membership.

“It behoves people who are leaders in the arts to not frequent it any longer. I don’t understand why anybody would think that it’s still OK to join a men-only members’ club,” she said.

The club, founded in 1831 as a meeting place for actors, previously held a formal vote on admitting women in 2015, with 50.5% supporting a rule change, failing to meet the required two-thirds majority. 

Garrick club members, including leading lawyers, the head of the civil service and King Charles, are expected to vote on the matter again in June. 

A non-profit arts organisation is launching a commercial contemporary gallery next month in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, with support from Arts Council England and Birmingham City Council.

Stryx Gallery will be a new venture from Stryx, a female-led arts residency, studios and exhibition space in Digbeth.

The organisation's co-directors, Anna Katarzyna Domejko and Karolina Korupczynska, say the new space will allow people to invest in affordable art while supporting emerging and mid-career artists.

The initial exhibition, opening on 13 April, will feature 10 artists from the West Midlands, with prices of art works ranging from £30 to £1,000.