Arts funding

Cultural organisations from across the UK have been invited to apply for funding for projects that help transform communities.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Award for Civic Arts Organisations was established in 2020 as a response to the impact of the pandemic and offers a total of £150,000 to organisations that are helping to transform communities.

This year’s award will be on the theme of “co-creating the future”, with the aim of funding projects that ignite joy, hope, compassion and energy, improve wellbeing, forge new connections, or develops solutions.

“In difficult times, it’s more important than ever that art and culture are available to everyone,” said Louisa Hooper, Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s UK branch. 

“By prioritising co-creation, this year we’re looking to recognise organisations that create lasting change by working with and in communities to address their needs and concerns, deepen relationships and use arts and creativity to enable positive change.”

Recipients of previous editions of the award include the first studio sanctuary for asylum seekers in the UK, established at The Art House in Wakefield, and a collective of neurodivergent artists and activists based in Hastings.

The award “is vitally important in encouraging and rewarding genuine engagement and co-creation with local communities”, said Baroness Bull, Chair of the award panel.

“In the years since the award was founded, we’ve seen hundreds of entries from organisations across the UK demonstrating a commitment to changing lives through art.”

A decision to delay the announcement of Arts Council England's investment plans was made due to this week's government reshuffle after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, a former Arts Minister has said.

Speaking to Sky News today, Conservative peer Lord Parkinson, who was Minister for Arts at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport until last month said he hopes the delay will not be long.

“I know just how important it is for so many organisations up and down the country. This is why we need stability in government, the decision has been made because of the reshuffle, hopefully only for a very short period of time,” he said.

He was also asked about the risk of art budgets being cut, responding that Sunak had “stood by the arts during the pandemic, with the unprecedented Cultural Recovery Fund”. 

He added that the delayed programme will be “larger than the last one”.

Arts Council England announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it was "pausing" today’s planned announcement of its National Portfolio following discussions with central government.

It added that the announcement of the portfolio would "instead be made as soon as possible within the coming days".

A reshuffle of cabinet posts was completed yesterday, with Michelle Donelan remaining as Culture Secretary.

Pioneering German artist Kurt Schwitters’ rural retreat in the Lake District is slated to be sold for development after repeated failures to secure funding.

Known as Merz Barn, after the absurdist art movement that Schwitters founded as an offshoot of Dadaism, the retreat was set up 75 years ago next to the village of Elterwater. 

The barn has been maintained since 2006 by Ian Hunter and Celia Larner, admirers of the artist who jointly founded the Littoral Trust to preserve the artist's estate. They had intended to make it a landmark on a planned Schwitters trail. 

The pair were initially provided with Arts Council support to preserve the barn for posterity, but nine applications for renewed Arts Council funding have been rejected over the last decade.

Despite recent donations from prominent artists including Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst and Tacita Dean, the trust has announced that the whole estate will be put up for sale early next year and is likely to be purchased by commercial developers.

“The project has received grants from the Arts Council in the past including investment in a feasibility study into the project,” an Arts Council England spokesperson told The Guardian.

“Understandably, there is a lot of competition for national lottery funding from the Arts Council and we’re not able to fund all of the projects that apply to us.

“Ian and Celia have been loyal custodians of the site and we wish them well in securing a future for it.”

London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is hoping to plug its annual funding shortfall with a renewed focus on live performances and club nights that finish at 6am.

Speaking to The Guardian, Turner Prize-winning artist and ICA chair Wolfgang Tillmans said new ICA director Bengi Ünsal's programme for the West End venue will “make people aware that there is this spot in the most established place in London that is underground, progressive and also has a really late license.”

Tillmans added that the intention is “to put the ICA back on a sustainable footing with a new mix of programming that brings back evening audiences and activates the bar and uses the late license that we have.”

"Ultimately", said Tillmans, "the goal of initiatives such as a partnership with the ticket app Dice is to make ICA self funding."

The venue currently receives 21% of its funding from Arts Council England, which amounted to £862,441 last year, but Tillmans says that “there’s a shortfall every year”.

Ünsal joined the West End venue from the Southbank Centre, where she was head of contemporary music and in charge of the annual Meltdown festival.  She replaced Stefan Kalmár, whose five years in charge saw programming centred on the visual arts.