Arts buildings are well represented among the 93 UK winners of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ 2010 Awards for architectural excellence. Whitechapel Gallery, Nottingham Contemporary, Hull Truck Theatre, Chapter Arts Centre, Trongate 103 and Aldeburgh Music Campus have all picked up awards, and a number of arts education facilities have also joined the list of winners.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has launched a major new initiative to help conserve important works of art and cultural treasures. As part of its Art Conservation Programme, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Inc. will provide grants to restore artworks to preserve them for future generations. Applications are invited from non-profit museums and cultural institutions. The programme expects to grant at least $1m per year.
http://www.bankofamerica.com
The assets of ticketing system supplier Enta Ltd have been transferred to Octopus Investments. The move secures the immediate and long-term financial future of the business, and will ensure that clients still receive software and service support. Enta staff and contact details remain
the same.
Mission Models Money, in partnership with ERA21 and through the support of The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, is conducting research to catalogue initiatives and responses to climate change and the challenges it brings across the arts sector. It has launched a short questionnaire, focusing on artist-led responses to climate change and resource scarcity and organisations reducing their overall ecological impact.
http://www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk/programme/sustainable-ability
A DCMS consultation is seeking views on Government proposals to change the shares of Lottery proceeds being allocated to the ‘good causes’ of arts, sport, heritage and charitable expenditure, health, education and the environment. If the proposals are implemented, the share for the Big Lottery Fund would initially fall from 50% to 46%, and arts, heritage and sport would rise to 18% each from April 2011. A year later, this would change again, with a further fall to 40% for the Big Lottery and an increase to 20% each for arts, heritage and sport. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has estimated that these changes, together with changes to the way the Lottery profits are taxed, will mean an extra £50m to the arts. The closing date for responses to the consultation is 21 August.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/consultations/7070.aspx
Two audience development agencies have recently rebranded. Audiences Yorkshire is now known as ‘&Co’, and Glasgow Grows Audiences has become Culture Sparks.
http://www.culturesparks.co.uk; http://www.andco.uk.com
A further two days of strike action hit Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG) at the end of May, in the continuing dispute over cuts to staff pay and conditions. The strikes were in protest at plans to cut overtime pay, to downgrade some jobs to impose pay cuts and to end premium rates for work on six public holidays. CSG claims that these proposals are to avoid redundancies.
http://www.bectu.org.uk
English National Opera has appointed Ian McMillan as its first Poet in Residence, as part of a new programme of learning and participation. McMillan will follow the company’s work and respond to each opera performed by ENO over the next two years, creating a series of poems.
http://www.eno.org/explore
Three disabled artists, Sarah Scott, Lorna Giezot and Zoe Partington-Sollinger, have been awarded a share of £55,000 to make new work for public spaces. The money comes from arts agencies Dada-South, the development agency for disabled and deaf artists in the South East, and Artpoint, the public art agency for the South East. The awards were made as part of the ‘Go Public’ initiative, funded by Legacy Trust UK and regional cultural agencies
http://www.artpointtrust.org.uk; www.dada-south.org.uk
OOPS! In ‘The Charity Case’ (AP217, p6), the 12 charities assessed so far are not arts charities. The Charity Commission is currently assessing four arts charities, and we will be reporting on the outcome of this process later in the summer. We apologise for this error.