You can’t complain if you don’t play the game

I remember that prior to Grants for the Arts (GFA), Arts Council England (ACE) had several different funding pathways catering to various artforms and touring. My ACE office had tantalising stacks of paper application and information forms stored messily on shelves near the visitor reception, and officers were adept at diving into exactly the right pile, emerging triumphantly with a cry of “This is what you need!”

GFA was introduced by ACE as the single gateway to funding for all artforms; part of the thinking behind it was to be more user-friendly, and to encourage more artist-led projects to be directly funded. As the a-n report A Fair Share? Direct Funding to Artists demonstrates, this has not been the case in at least the last two financial years, and the figures are not significantly different with the other three UK arts councils (although they are better, particularly in Northern Ireland, where 30% of funding for individual artists is ringfenced for first time applicants). ArtsProfessional highlights the key statistical findings in its current edition.
But for visual artists and those working in the visual arts, there is much more in this paper than the headline figures. It also surveys the programmes of each of the four UK arts councils and summarises important information on:
• The various funding streams available for individual artists to apply into for 2011/2012 financial year, wherever you live in the UK.
• Future trends and potential changes in criteria and programmes that will affect visual artists.
• Planned developments that will provide additional support to individual artists from 2012.
It also gives up-to-date information on the visual arts priorities of each UK arts council. If you are a visual artist, wherever you live in the UK, I urge you to read these parts of the research! Knowledge is key to understanding, and once you understand you can participate with greater depth and effectiveness. You will, I think, find these parts of the research very useful indeed. As far as I’m aware, this is the only place you will find all this information collected in one location, in a readable format.

The aim of the report is to provide something of a rallying cry. Yes, this is a situation that should be addressed by the various arts councils that seek to support artists’ development within their overall policies. But I would suggest that it is also the responsibility of individual artists to overcome feelings of disinclination, demotivation and whatever else may be preventing them, and to put together more and better applications for the considerable funding that is still available. As my friend the artist Geoff Molyneux always says: “you can’t complain if you don’t play the game!”

There is another piece of research still to do, which is to understand why so few artists are applying to the arts councils in their own name. If you’re an artist, whether you have or haven’t applied for funding, please do comment about your own experience of the arts funding systems and your perceptions of it. Feel free to use this blog, my own blog, or comment directly onto the a-n site immediately underneath the report.

‘Dany Louise is a visual arts specialist and writer with twenty years experience in education, management and strategic arts roles. She has worked with organisations including Arts Council England, Brighton & Hove City Council and as Manager of Leeds Arts Arena. She also wrote and researched ‘Ladders for development: Impact of Arts Council England funding cuts on practice-led organisations for a-n. A freelancer, she focuses on cultural policy development, CPD training and arts writing whilst undertaking a PhD at University of Brighton on Biennials of art. www.danylouise.wordpress.com