Finance

Art Fund opens grant schemes worth £2m

13 Jun 2022

The Art Fund is opening applications to two funding streams this summer, with more than £2m available in total.

The charity’s Reimagine grants programme, designed to increase stability as the sector navigates its post-Covid recovery, opens from 4 July until 12 September.

Arts organisations will be eligible to apply for grants between £10,000 and £50,000 for projects focused on remimagining approaches to engagement. Of the £2m available in total, £200,000 will be distributed by Museum Development UK towards small to medium sized museums for reset grants and resilience programmes.

Meanwhile, applications to The West Loan Programme with Art Fund, which enables museums to borrow works from major lending museums and galleries, will open at the end of June until 12 August.

According to Art Fund's recently published annual report, the charity delivered more than £5.8m in grants across all its funding streams last year.

Director Jenny Waldman said this was made possible by the 130,000 Art Fund members who have purchased the National Art Pass and donations from trusts, foundations and donors: “Thanks to the generosity we have been able to step up to help museums through the challenges of the pandemic and into an exciting future”.

By the end of the year, the charity expects to have delivered over £6m in Covid-19 response funding.

BBC orchestras: broadcaster to explore alternative funding

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performing at the Barbican

08 Jun 2022

BBC to reduce licence fee funding for its performing groups as part of efforts to make £200m a year in savings.

Backlash over massive funding cuts for emerging musicians

07 Jun 2022

Leading music industry figures call for royalties body to reverse 60% funding cut for new talent, despite increase in revenues.

Supporting artists

UK’s Cultural Protection Fund yet to support Ukraine

06 Jun 2022

The UK’s Cultural Protection Fund is yet to designate funding to Ukraine to support widespread damage to heritage sites caused by Russia’s invasion.

The fund, administered by the British Council and backed by the Foreign Office, has delivered £30m since its inception in 2016 to protect cultural heritage at risk, namely across the Middle East and North and East Africa.

A British Council spokesperson told The Art Newspaper Ukraine was not automatically eligible for the fund, but an exception was made to allow allocation of £60,000 in March, which did not materialise.

In the last financial year, the £2.4m earmarked for grants had been largely spent before Russia’s invasion began in late February. This year’s fund is now open for expressions of interest, but the Ukraine is not listed as one of the fund’s targeted countries on the British Council’s website.

The Cultural Protection Fund did channel £80,000 through a Dutch non-governmental organisation in March, which is coordinating assistance for Ukraine.

The Prince Claus Fund shipped protection materials for works of art and buildings to Ukraine via Poland in March. A second consignment is now being organised.

The support package also received funding from foundations in the USA and Germany.

Scheme to protect grassroots music venues launches

Le Pub in Newport is one of nine venues in the pilot

06 Jun 2022

The initiative gives music fans the chance to buy shares in grassroots music venues and help secure their long-term future.

Arts Council pledges Grantium improvements

User accessing Grantium on laptop computer

27 May 2022

Testing of upgrades to the much-maligned Grantium application system are underway, with a launch date for an improved version to be announced soon.

DCMS study moots major new data platform

25 May 2022

Report recommends new cultural sector data platform to help make the case for increased funding across the arts.

Cultural commissioning

Local authorities

Dorries: abolition of ACE 'not on government agenda'

19 May 2022

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries tells MPs that while the system of distributing arts funding is "not perfect", there are no plans to abolish Arts Council England.

Cultural commissioning

Global Screen Fund extended with £21m pledge

17 May 2022

DCMS is extending its UK Global Screen Fund for three years with an additional £21m of funding.

Designed to boost international development and distribution opportunities post-Brexit, the fund supported more than 65 productions in its £7m pilot year.

According to DCMS, the continued investment will increase exports of UK film, TV and video games in new territories, help productions promote work at film festivals and support companies to hire staff with specialist skills.

It is split into three strands with the first, a channel aimed at supporting the sale and distribution of UK feature films overseas, reopening today (17 May).

Two subsequent strands, aimed at international business development and international co-production, will relaunch in the coming months.

Ben Roberts, CEO of BFI, administers of the fund, said international collaboration is fundamental to making new films and dramas that audiences around the world want to see.

“We are proud of the incredible craft and talent within our screen industries, and look forward to how we can help grow opportunities for the UK globally over the next three years of this essential fund."

Third of Capital Investment Programme goes to priority places

Two artists work at Project Art Works studio

13 May 2022

The programme, aimed at transforming digital and physical infrastructure, is penned as a way to put culture at the forefront of local regeneration.

Cultural Investment Fund revived with £128m pot

09 May 2022

DCMS is reopening the Cultural Investment Fund with £128m available across three funding streams.

This latest round is made up of a £30.8m Cultural Development Fund, £20.5m Libraries Improvement Fund and a £60.3m Museum Estate and Development Fund.

It follows a previous round in March, when 63 organisations shared £48.1m.

First launched in 2019, the fund aims to improve accessibility of the arts and safeguard the future of locally-led cultural projects, museums and public libraries in England.

DCMS says support will be targeted to areas which have historically lower levels of cultural investment.

Organisations are now being encouraged to submit expressions of interest for the appropriate strand at Arts Council England’s website.

Government seeks 5% savings from major arts and culture institutions

06 May 2022

A government review of public bodies will consider whether they should be retained or abolished as well as seeking efficiency savings of at least 5%.

Royal Academy of Music receives £6m donation

03 May 2022

The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is gifting £6m to the Royal Academy of Music, the single biggest donation in the institution's 200-year history.

The money will fund the Gatbsy Chair of Musical Theatre, the first fully-funded endowed chair at any UK conservatoire.

Two further anonymous donations are funding the Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano and the William Lawes Chair of Chamber Music.

The three endowed chairs boost the launch of the Academy’s bicentenary campaign, which aims to raise £60m to invest into facilities, staff retention and funding future musicians.

Academy Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood said the donations are “a truly wonderful start” to the bicentenary.

“The Academy’s bicentenary affords us the opportunity to future-proof the values which have defined our work since 1822 while offering a transformational set of opportunities for talent to thrive, regardless of background.”

Leadmill battle highlights leasehold woes

27 Apr 2022

An overwhelming lack of ownership among the UK’s independent music venues puts the future of the ecosystem at risk, advocates say.

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.

Cultural commissioning

Environmental sustainability

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.

Jazz venues 'hanging by a thread'

a jazz band plays to an audience

21 Apr 2022

An absence of ringfenced funding for grassroots venues and promoters will likely lead to further closures, musicians say.

Indie music labels increase market share

19 Apr 2022

Independent labels’ share of the UK music market grew to just under 27% in 2021.

Data from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) indicates the single-percentage point increase on last year is bolstered by a sharp rise in indie labels' share of the UK’s vinyl market, which now accounts for four in every 10 vinyl sales.

Independent labels' album sales have grown by more than 10% in the past two years to account for 34% all album sales in 2021.

The upward trend continues into 2022, with indie labels' overall market share increasing to 28.9%.

Last week's UK album charts saw indie labels represent the three highest selling records of the week for the first time in over a decade.

BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor attributes the rise to the streaming era and the enhanced choice indie labels offer to artists and fans.

“We’re delighted to see the indie sector going from strength to strength, contributing to the growth of the UK music industry as a whole.”

Paying for digital

12 Apr 2022

If there is a universal truth in the arts and culture sector, it is that funding is an eternal challenge. That's even more true of digital, as Katie Moffat explains.

London art deals 'fuelled by drugs', fraudster claims

06 Apr 2022

A London art dealer and gallery owner facing 20 years in prison has claimed the capital's trade is fuelled by drinking and drug taking.

Inigo Philbrick pleaded guilty to defrauding buyers of more than US$86m by selling artworks multiple times, or selling fractions of them that amounted to more than 100%.

In a New York court this week he said the culture of the London art scene contibuted to his crimes.

Philbrick, who ran a gallery in Mayfair, has provided officials with information about other alleged fraud in the art market, the Times reports.

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