NCA on hold as campaigning agenda is formed

The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) is re-framing its role pending the outcome of a series of meetings aimed at mobilising the arts sector effectively in the face of growing financial challenges. The NCA, which has lost subscription revenues as local and national arts funding has been squeezed, has recognised that its current business model is no longer viable and the organisation will continue to exist only as a shell, without staff, until such time as the role it can play in any future campaigning for the sector becomes clearer.

Starting in February, a group of arts professionals will be running a series of regional conferences under the name ‘What Next?’ aimed at finding a positive way forward for the sector. Actor and director Sam West, who has been on the NCA board for six years, has been voted Chair in the run-up to the conferences, with a view to steering the NCA towards a new phase. He said: “…for an organisation like ours this is a time to listen. We hope that out of the discussions next Spring a new public-facing campaign can build on the foundations the National Campaign for the Arts has laid during the last quarter of a century.”

APBlog: A national campaign for the arts should first and foremost aim to win the public’s hearts and minds, says Liz Hill. Read Shifting public opinon