Scotland to tie arts funding to net zero progress

27 Apr 2022

Creative Scotland says it will expect all funding recipients to demonstrate how their work contributes to making the sector carbon neutral by 2045.

Society lotteries: ‘We support good causes too’

society lottery playing sheets
26 Apr 2022

Smaller grant givers take aim at the outgoing National Lottery operator, saying they want less competition and more collaboration.

Activists occupy British Museum

25 Apr 2022

Hundreds of activists have staged another protest at the British Museum against the institution’s links to oil giant BP.

Activist theatre group BP or not BP, organisers of the "Make BP History" event said around 400 people took part in multiple protests across the British Museum on Saturday (23 April), culminating in a 10 metre BP logo being pulled apart in the Great Court. Protestors then went on to occupy four different rooms in the museum after closing time.

BP is one of the British Museum's longest standing corporate supporters, supporting the museum since 1996. The current five-year contract was signed in May 2016 and extended for a year due to Covid. It is understood the museum is in talks with the oil giants over extending the arrangement further. Several protests against the museum's corporate partnership with BP have been held in recent weeks.

Deborah Locke, a member of BP or not BP, said: "Renewing this sponsorship deal would send a terrible message, making an oil giant seem acceptable when we need to urgently shift away from this disastrous industry.”

The British Museum has previously defended its relationship with BP, stating that "without external support much programming and other major projects would not happen".

£16.9m museum development fund to open

25 Apr 2022

Arts Council England will open the second round of its Museum, Estate and Development Fund (MEND) this summer.

With £16.9m available in total, the fund is aimed at non-national accredited museums and local authorities wanting to undertake urgent maintenance. Unsuccessful applicants from round one are eligible. Grants of between £50,000 and £5m are available.

An expression of interest form will open on Grantium on May 9, before applications open from July 18.

MEND forms part of a £48.1m pot aimed at regenerating cultural institutions announced earlier this year. 

A webinar for potential applicants is scheduled for April 28, with sign up available through Eventbrite.

£5m investment in Coventry City of Culture legacy

20 Apr 2022

£5m has been committed to maintain the impact of Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture.

Starting in June, Coventry City of Culture Trust will launch a new phase of programming, expected to reach more than 500,000 audience members, secure 32 full-time jobs and support more than 50 freelance artists and cultural workers over two years.

George Duggins, Leader of Coventry City Council, said becoming UK City of Culture was “not just about the year itself but about building a lasting legacy that would benefit local people and organisations”.

The City Hosts volunteer programme will be extended and other legacy projects pursued, including the return of the Assembly Festival Garden and the launch of the U.K.’s first permanent immersive digital art gallery, the Reel Store, in May.

There will be a focus on “the urgent and critical issue of sustainability” and a new grants programme will be established, the trust added. 
 

£3.9m for cultural volunteering

14 Apr 2022

About £3.9m has been awarded to increase volunteering opportunities in the sector.

Arts and culture organisations received most of the grants distributed by Arts Council England from the £4.6m Volunteering Futures Fund on Wednesday (April 13).

Beneficiaries included Bureau Centre for the Arts in Blackburn and Darwen, which will roll out a new two-year volunteering programme, Redcar's Festival of Thrift, which plans to collaborate with 12 partners on volunteer recruitment, and a consortia of local organisations led by Barnsley Museums.

The 19 lead organisations being funded are expected to work with more than 160 partners.

Just two grants have gone to London-based organisations, with eight given to awardees in the North of England.

 

£8.9m for youth music making

13 Apr 2022

£8.9m is being invested in two funds to support young people's music making, learning and earning potential.

Youth Music has launched the Trailblazer Fund, offering grants of up to £30,000 to organisations who want to trial new music projects, and the Catalyser Fund, which will give up to £300,000 to those want to scale up existing projects or "create change in sector practice".

The charity says the funds, made possible with National Lottery support via Arts Council England, respond to a 33% increase in demand for funds over the past 12 months.

"The post-pandemic demand for funding of transformative music-making opportunities is far outpacing demand," it said.

Applicants to Youth Music helped design the funds and will inform the funding decisions.

"This shift will make life easier for applicants and ensure music making opportunities are open for the children and young people who need them the most."
 
 

Why levelling up shouldn’t mean levelling down on diversity 

12 Apr 2022

How will Arts Council England square the circle of delivering increased funding to regions outside London while also meeting its commitment to increase funding to Black-led* organisations? asks Kevin Osborne.

Ireland launches Basic Income for the Arts

06 Apr 2022

Up to 2,000 artists will be supported for three years, reflecting a sea change in how arts workers are valued.

Final Culture Recovery Fund round delivers £35m

The Piece Hall in Halifax
31 Mar 2022

340 organisations share the final wave of funding, with over a third receiving support for the first time.

Touring musicians fund offers £250k

30 Mar 2022

A £250,000 fund aimed at supporting touring musicians has been opened by Help Musicians.

Musicians can apply for grants up to £5,000 to put towards touring expenses and international administration fees such as visas.

The music charity is also funding broader access to immigration and visa specialists Viva La Visa, offering musicians 30 minutes of free telephone advice on the bureaucratic requirements of touring in Europe.

Help Musicians says it will support the advice service, previously available to Incorporated Society of Musicians and The Musicians’ Union members, for the next 18 months.

“My plea to the government is to use the 18 months of cover that this service provides to negotiate and put in place all that is needed to ensure friction-free touring for musicians in the EU,” Chief Executive James Ainscough said.

North East invests £5m in cultural zones

28 Mar 2022

Three cultural and creative 'zones' will be established in the North East of England.

North of Tyne Combined Authority has invested £5m to create a "supportive and attractive environment" for creative businesses in North Shields town centre, Berwick-upon-Tweed, and Clayton Street in central Newcastle.

A report from the authority says the North Shields initiative in particular will "play a pivotal role in reinvigorating the place and creating social and economic benefits for the people who live, work and visit there – building social inclusion and helping to create a sense of pride".

The Berwick-upon-Tweed project is being led by Northumberland City Council, which is awaiting a full business case before giving final approval.

NPO board rules 'potentially damaging' for arts charities

24 Mar 2022

Governance requirements for the next National Portfolio are "taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut" and could lead to board flight. 

York opens grants scheme for events

24 Mar 2022

Organisations in York that were negatively affected by Covid-19 are being encouraged to apply to a new grants scheme.

Awards of up to £10,000 are available to events and festivals to deliver activity planned for 2020 or 2021 this year. Applicants must demonstrate how their event supports economic recovery and the York Culture Strategy.

Funding has been provided by York City Council to Make it York from the authority's Additional Restrictions Grant allocation.

"Make It York have designed a quick turnaround grant-giving process, which opens from today (March 24), and we're looking forward to receiving applications," Managing Director Sarah Loftus said.

Applications close April 7, with successful organisations to be notified by the end of the month.

£30m expansion for Black Country Living Museum

24 Mar 2022

Black Country Living Museum has received £30m to create new attractions that "whisk people back in time".

The project, titled Forging Ahead, is the museum's largest ever, expanding its footprint by about a third. 

It stalled due to a funding gap caused by the costs of cleaning up an industrial site needed for the expansion. Funding has now been committed by the West Midlands Combined Authority, whose Mayor Andy Street called the project "incredibly exciting".

It will offer visitors the chance to experience what life was like between the 1940s and 1960s with a historic old town and industrial quarter, among other spaces.

Wolverhampton’s iconic Elephant and Castle pub will be recreated and Dudley’s Woodside Library will be  rebuilt brick-by-brick on the museum site.

Chief Executive Andrew Lovett said the development "provides added momentum to thrive once again" following the challenges of Covid-19.

Levelling up won't fix social mobility in the arts

22 Mar 2022

Academics say moving money away from London and replicating successful models like UK City of Culture are only half a solution.

25 period instrument ensembles share £100k

21 Mar 2022

The Continuo Foundation has split £100,000 between 25 period performance projects in its third round of grant giving.

Supported projects will take place between April and October this year, with a focus on touring underserved areas of the country.

Continuo trustee Hannah French says about 20% of the pot went to recently formed ensembles to help make them more visible to audiences and promoters. 

The foundation has awarded more than £350,000 to 51 different groups since its inception in 2020.

Wales awards £4.2m in third CRF round

17 Mar 2022

Seventy-one organisations have been awarded a share of £4.2m in the third round of the Culture Recovery Fund in Wales.

It brings the total amount distributed in Wales via the flagship Covid emergency fund to more than £87m, a contribution the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) expects will save up to 1,800 sector jobs.

Awardees include Wales Millennium Centre, which won the largest grant of more than £496,000, several theatres in Cardiff, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

97% of applicants were successful in this latest round, ACW says.

Local government culture commission launches

17 Mar 2022

An independent committee wants to give a "wake up call" to central government and make the case for council-led culture funding. 

UNBOXED 2022 working on 'a recipe for failure'

17 Mar 2022

A scathing report from MPs says the festival is "an irresponsible use of public money" set to prove its sceptics right. How fair is the criticism?

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