As cuts continue to bite, arts organisations are plugging the funding gap by replacing paid staff – such as gallery invigilators – with unpaid volunteers. We look at three galleries in Liverpool and Bristol that have done just that, and assess what this growing trend could mean for both individual artists and the UK’s arts ecology.
More support will be directed to the arts outside London but the Culture Minister rejects claims of a regional funding crisis. Liz Hill reports.
A new report published today by the researchers behind last year’s Rebalancing our Cultural Capital, reveals that Lottery funding of the arts in England is largely benefiting the wealthy to the detriment of the country’s poorest and least arts-engaged communities.
The Northern Rock Foundation, a major funder of arts and community projects in the North East and Cumbria, has announced it is to close following the withdrawal of funding support from Virgin Money.
As national portfolio organisations in England wait for news on their funding applications to Arts Council England, Three Johns and Shelagh argue that the system is flawed and that it’s time to rethink both what ACE is and what it is for.
Creative Scotland has launched its 10-year plan for the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland, setting out its ambitions and priorities over the next decade.
Sir Sandy Crombie, the first chair of Scotland’s arts funding body Creative Scotland, is to leave his position after four years in the role.
Liz Hill, editor of Arts Professional, concludes that Arts Council England’s This England report is based on a carefully constructed analysis designed to disguise a London-centric funding strategy.
A new report urges those working with arts and culture to rethink their contribution to a vision of sustainable development that benefits the whole of society. Report co-author, Mark Robinson, introduces the provocation and identifies three vital ‘practices’ that can only be achieved by collaboration between artists, institutions and an intelligent funding ecology.
The Ask The Audience debate in Leeds was conceived as a challenge to the arts funding status quo and featured a panel of arts professionals including a-n’s director. Co-organiser Phil Kirby reports on how the event went.
The Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value has embarked on a two-year project to gather ‘evidence and arguments’ about investment and engagement in our cultural lives. We report from the first of the Commission’s ‘provocation events’ and ask why, despite a growing consensus around the importance of culture, cuts and more cuts are still the order of the day.
20 free delegate passes, specifically for emerging independent artists, have been made available to February’s No Boundaries symposium on the role of culture in 21st century society. But applicants need to be quick – the deadline is 5pm on Tuesday 11 February.
Does joining with higher education institutions bring a promise of financial stability for cash-strapped arts organisations, alongside an increase in audiences? a-n Director Susan Jones reports from an Arts Council England conference that sketched out a new landscape for the contemporary arts.
Creative Scotland has announced £9.4million of capital funding for 12 organisations in Scotland, including Collective Gallery, Fruitmarket Gallery, Cove Park and Hospitalfield Arts.
Chisenhale Gallery, The Showroom and Studio Voltaire reveal how their artistic and research ethos will lead the way for their fundraising priorities in their joint, Catalyst fund-supported project, How to work together.
The arts funding body for Scotland is seeking feedback on a draft version of its new plan for 2014-24.
Arts Council England has set out its agenda for arts investment for 2015-18, and alongside an announcement that the National Portfolio Organisation budget will combine Lottery funding with government grant-in-aid for the first time, ACE also says it is expecting NPOs to pay artists fairly.
A House of Commons Select Committee has opened an inquiry into the work of Arts Council England and its regional funding policies.
Arts Council England prepares to cut NPOs again next year, but strategic funding will take the hit from 2015/16.
How do artists fare when they show work in publicly-funded galleries in the UK? New research commissioned by a-n and AIR looking specifically at artists’ experiences reveals the gulf between the expectations of artists and galleries.
The Warwick Commission is aiming to develop new policy thinking and practical recommendations related to the long-term sustainability of culture in the face of tough economic challenges.
This year’s Arts Development UK national conference took a food-related approach to professional development, networking and debate. Steffan Jones-Hughes donned a hairnet, plastic gloves and apron to join the lively conversations in the conference’s World Cafe, where a menu of playful ingredients from artists in residence SSoCial kept the conversations on track.
The idea of an ‘American Model’ of arts funding is gaining traction in the UK along with growing calls for artists to be ‘entrepreneurial’. But, writes American critic and curator Andrew Horwitz, the funding system in the US is deeply problematic, while those who espouse entrepreneurship miss the point that the real ‘business of art’ is not for profit.
After much controversy, including being expelled from the Museums Association, Croydon Council yesterday raised around £8million from the sale of Chinese porcelain from the Riesco Collection, bequeathed to Croydon in 1959.
A year on from the implosion of Creative Scotland and a year before the independence referendum, where do things stand at the funding body? Johnny Gailey attends a recent Open Session event in Glasgow hosted by CEO Janet Archer, and finds the organisation caught in a curious state of flux.
