Tonya Nelson addressing the Governance Now conference

Tonya Nelson addressing the Governance Now conference held at Senate House

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ACE explores ‘radical’ new business models for arts organisations

Public funder outlines efforts to support cultural organisations struggling in the face of financial pressures, saying it wants to encourage the sector to ‘think outside the box’.

Neil Puffett
3 min read

Cultural organisations in England are working with Arts Council England to look at “radical” new business models, the public funding body has announced.

Speaking at the Clore Leadership and Cultural Governance Alliance’s conference – Governance Now – held yesterday (6 November), Arts Council England’s executive director for enterprise and innovation, Tonya Nelson, said she wants to support and encourage organisations to “think outside the box and create unique change”.

“Of course, we know the financial landscape is challenging,” she told delegates.

“Last week’s budget announcement showed us it is hard all the way around and we acknowledge that. This morning’s news [about the US election] could mean it is a little bit harder.

“But where I think the sector has a great deal of wealth is in knowledge and experience amongst you right now. That’s what we’ve got to capitalise on and leverage.”

Nelson listed a number of areas ACE is currently working on to help organisations deal with the current economic climate.

“In terms of business model innovation, we are supporting organisations to think quite radically about how they might change their business model,” she said.

“To that end we are working with groups of organisations in pilots to think about how we can do resource sharing.”

“We are [also] thinking about the success of our programmes like Creative People and Places, which devolves decision making to people where they live to choose the culture offer they want to provide.

“And we are thinking much more about how we use citizens’ assemblies going forward – to devolve decision making to those people most affected.”

‘New forms’ of funding

Nelson’s comments come after ACE earlier this week launched a scheme offering repayable grants of up to £500,000 for theatre and dance companies to allow them to tour to larger-scale venues.

It is hoped the grants will reduce the financial risk for touring productions, giving boards and investors increased confidence and incentive to support tours.

Speaking at the conference, Nelson said ACE is exploring other “new forms” of funding for the sector.

“We are thinking about new forms of funding we can provide, that might not be grant funding, but other forms of finance to allow organisations to tap into their assets and expertise in different ways to monetise them,” she said.

Nelson said ACE is also trying to offer support in terms of the way it works with the sector.

“Given the pressured environment that we are in we want to reinforce we are willing to work with you on your funding agreements, whether that’s as a project or a core NPO, to make sure you can change and be flexible in what you offer to meet the needs you have today,” she said.

“We are [also] working hard on streamlining processes so there is not so much burden in terms of reporting to us.

“We need information and data in order to make our arguments to government, but we don’t want it to be a burden on you. So we are doing our best to free up your time to focus on the mission of your organisation.”