ACE reaffirms support for grassroots music

Arts Council England (ACE) has renewed its commitment to supporting grassroots music by extending its Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund, a strand of its National Lottery Project Grants.

The funding stream, available to live music venues and gig promoters to support artistic programming, audience development, venue improvements or the purchase of assets, was initially due to close at the end of March this year. Now, ACE has extended the fund following an evaluation which found it was having a “significant impact” on grassroots music.

As part of its refreshed approach, ACE is offering £1.5m through the fund until September this year. After that, grassroots music will become a Project Grant priortity until September 2025, meaning decision panels will prioritise strong applications from grasroots music venues and promoters. ACE says this focus will see at least £1.5m of investment each year.

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ACE Director of Music Claire Mera-Nelson commented: “Grassroots music venues are important community assets that do vital work both within the industry – such as supporting talent development – as well as outside of it, like helping audiences discover their new favourite artists”.

“I strongly urge the grassroots live music sector to continue to develop strong funding applications and to work collaboratively with us over the coming years.”

Separately, ACE has awarded a £500,000 grant to Music Venue Properties, an initiative set up by Music Venue Trust (MVT) which is set to buy the freeholds of grassroots music venues to safeguard their futures after receiving the go ahead last month.

ACE's support will be put towards supporting administration costs and the purchase of a number of freehold grassroots venues.

MVT Chief Executive Mark Davyd said he is “delighted” by ACE’s award.

“Their support means we have not only been able to successfully conclude this project and create a ground-breaking new ownership model, it was also a vital vote of confidence in the initiative at a crucial time.”

‘Significant’ impact

ACE’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund has had a “significant” impact on grassroots music and “considerable success” in achieving its expected outcomes and aims, according to an evaluation report.

The report, by creative research team the hub, said the fund helped promoters and venues explore more sustainable business models and had a positive impact on perceptions about, and engagement with, ACE.

“Having spent much of last summer exploring the impact the fund had had, we’re not surprised that over two thirds of applicants who took part in our survey about the fund told us that they felt it had “been a lifeline for grassroots venues and promoters," the report says.

Since the launch of the Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund in 2019, ACE has invested £7.23m in 378 projects.

The report concludes that closing the fund as planned in March could “be viewed by many grassroots venues and promoters as evidence that the Arts Council no longer values what they do and/or thinks it no longer warrants support”.

“We had initially indicated that the Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund would be ending after the 2022/23 financial year; however, the feedback we heard indicated concern that grassroots music venues were no longer a priority for the Arts Council,” Mera-Nelson explained.

“That just isn’t true: we are committed to supporting the grassroots music sector for the long term.”