Archived decisions

Item 13

Culture & Communities PRC

Work Programme Item: Finance and Performance issues

Briefing note: Innovative approaches to sustainable funding of the arts

10 January 2007

Contact: Emma Gordon

1. Background

In the current financial climate, it is important that the Council continues to look for new ways to support Arts organisations in getting the funding they need to continue their valuable work. As quoted in Arts Council England's Ambitions for the Arts 2003-6, the aim is `to work with funded organisations to help them thrive rather than survive' - this ambition translates directly into the second policy objective of Hampshire County Council's Arts Strategy:

`To support the development of a sustainable and thriving arts and creative industries infrastructure in Hampshire'

2. Issues to be explored:

    · How can HCC support arts organisations to take a long term financial view of their business management?

    · Are there more sustainable approaches to Arts funding which we should be exploring - what other models are there and what could we learn from them?

    · Can we make better use of premises for supporting the Arts; do we have other choices about how we invest in our Arts infrastructure?.

    · What choices does HCC have in the roles it could play in the long term delivery of its aims to improve quality of life by increasing access to arts activities?

3. Suggestions

    · Invite representatives from different organisations with a variety of approaches to fund-raising and business planning in the arts world (public and private organisations) to speak at the Culture and Communities PRC meetings, to provide inspiration and challenge thinking.

    · Learn from in the County Council's partners in Basse Normandie, France, where different funding models are used to support the arts.

    · Invite James Gough of Arts Marketing Hampshire to explain how Arts Council England's removal of their recurrently funded status has impacted on them.

    · Make connections with Euclid (an organisation which provides European and international information, consultancy and research services to the cultural sector) to hear their current thinking on sustainable funding.

    · Invite the Arts Council and the National Officers Research Unit to present their views on best practice models of national funding for the arts.

    · See if barriers to effective funding schemes exist for arts organisations - particularly for dance, the visual arts, literature and media, where less support is currently given.