Arts funding

DCMS and the Department of International Trade have committed £500,000 in new funding for the Museum Export Growth Scheme (MEGS).

The scheme, launched in 2014, aims to boost British music exports, helping artists to grow their profile in overseas markets by funding small to medium sized music companies. 

To date it has dispersed over £4.5m and generated £55.5m in export revenue. 

This latest round of funding comes on the heels of data from BPI which showed that British music exports reached a record high in 2021 of £590.8m.

Goldman Sachs analysis predicts that the global recorded music industry will more than double in the next decade, from $25.9bn in 2021 to $53.2bn by 2030. Should the UK match this growth rate, BPI said that British music exports revenue could reach £1.2bn by 2030.

“MEGS continues to be a crucial resource for independent artists and labels to help them breakthrough in overseas markets,” said Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive BPI, BRIT Awards & Mercury Prize. 

“We are pleased that the Government is committed to continuing to work in partnership with the music industry to maximise the UK’s music exports potential. 

“MEGS not only delivers for the UK economy but has had supported some of our best loved independent artists to achieve global success.”

Applications for MEGS funding will be open until 2 September. 

Historic England has awarded 57 projects a total of £774,000 from its Everyday Heritage Grants: Celebrating Working Class Histories fund.

Selected via an open call that attracted more than 500 applications, awards range from £6,000 to £25,000 for each project. 

The successful projects include ones looking at the working-class histories of boxing clubs around Halifax, an exploration of 50 years of nightclubbing in Leicester focusing on Black, African and Caribbean culture, and research into Deptford's 19th century 'slaughterhouse girls' who worked in the area's cattle markets.

Historic England described the projects as "community-led and people-focused, with a focus on heritage that links people to overlooked local historic places and celebrating working-class histories". 

Chief Executive Duncan Wilson said the awardees "demonstrate that heritage is all around us and accessible to everyone".

"They will highlight that wherever people live they are surrounded by historic buildings, landscapes and streets, industrial and coastal heritage that can help bring communities together."

The grants form part of Historic England’s Strategy for Inclusion, Diversity and Equality, published in November 2020 which aims to ensure a diverse range of people in England is able to "connect with, enjoy and benefit from the historic environment".

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has opened a range of funding programmes to support the work of individual artists as part of its Support for Individual Artists Programme (SIAP).

The programme provides funding to artists at all career stages, working across all artforms both domestically and internationally.

The funds now open for applications include the General Arts Award, which funds “specific projects, specialised research, personal artistic development and certain materials and equipment”; the Artists Career Enhancement Scheme, which offers training and mentoring to support the professional development of career artists; and the Artists International Development Fund, an annual programme that supports overseas opportunities for individual, freelance and self-employed artists and organisations.

Artists can apply to more than one scheme but will not be awarded more than one grant per funding round. The deadline for funding applications is August 30.

The SIAP Major Individual Awards is also open for applications until August 15. The scheme supports established artists with national or international recognition to develop “extended or ambitious work”, covering specific projects, specialised research, personal artistic development and materials and equipment.

The SIAP Minority Ethnic Residency and Mentoring Programme is accepting applications until August 22. The scheme is designed to create opportunities for “specialised training, research, cultural exchanges, networking and learning for individual artists, creative practitioners and arts administrators from minority ethnic and migrant backgrounds”.

The SIAP Travel Awards, a rolling programme, is accepting applications for individual artists and music groups of up to four members to visit a host organisation outside Northern Ireland to develop skills and expertise.

Freelands Foundation has awarded £608,000 in the form of seven new grants to small and medium-sized Black-led visual arts organisations in Bristol, Leicester and London.

The Space to Dream fund will allow the selected organisations to work with artists, curators and local communities as part of the foundation’s £3m commitment to address racial inequality in the visual arts.

The seven organisations were selected by the foundation’s Diversity Action Group.

They are 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning in Brixton, the Arab British Centre in Central London, Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, Cubitt Artists in Islington, June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive in Peckham, Rising Arts in Bristol and Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage in Leicester. 

Each organisation will use the fund to invest in a different aspect of programming or outreach,

Rising Arts plans to use the grant to expand its youth-led programme, using mentoring, young trustees, networks and collaborative commissions to embed diverse voices into the cultural sector.

“This funding will allow us to put resources into the recommendations that came directly from people of colour in our community,” said Euella Jackson and Jess Bunyan, Co-Directors.

“We will celebrate the legacy of the work that has come before and build on this towards a future sector where young people of colour can truly thrive.” 

The Bernie Grant Arts Centre will use the grant to develop a visual arts programme shaped by international guest curators, bringing world-class programming to local community groups.

Hannah-Azieb Pool, Artistic Director and CEO, said the grant “will make it possible for us to commission ground-breaking new work by Black artists and allow us to create a bold, ambitious new home for Black visual arts”.

Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage will use the award to explore African diasporic identities across the Midlands through a documentary photography project marking the 60th anniversary of independence for many African and Caribbean nations.

Three Sudanese museums that received £1 million in funding from the British Council are demanding the return of colonial artefacts taken by imperial troops in the 19th century.

The museums, overseen by Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), were awarded the grants in 2018 to help with restoration efforts after they were damaged by regional conflict.

The head of the NCAM has now demanded that the UK repatriate looted Sudanese cultural treasures including banners, armour and human remains taken after the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, suggesting that they could be moved to the museums that received the funding.

The artefacts in question are currently held at Durham University’s Palace Green Library, the Royal Armouries and the University of Edinburgh’s Anatomical Museum.

“We have to have a big campaign. These people are our brothers, our heroes. They unified and defended our country. It is a very special story of resistance to imperialism,” said Dr. Eglal el-Malik, the NCAM’s Conservation Director, according to a report in the Telegraph.

The choice to fund organisations lobbying for repatriation of artefacts has raised questions about how cash is awarded by organisations such as the British Council, which is partially government funded.

A British Council spokesperson said: “We are proud of our cultural protection work in Sudan. It has helped to strengthen the cultural ties between the UK and Sudan.

"The grant, which was provided in 2018, aimed to protect cultural heritage at risk and does not have a remit on repatriations of cultural artefacts."