Arts Council England to consider micro grants

England’s national arts funder is considering introducing a series of ‘micro grants’ to fund arts activity via a more streamlined process.

Arts Council England (ACE) also said that it is considering new strategies to encourage collaboration between culture organisations and communities in the fight against climate change.

#askACE

The comments were made during what was billed as ACE’s “first ever live online review of the year”. CEO Darren Henley was joined by Chief Financial Officer Liz Bushell and Investments Centre Director Edward De Souza for a live-streamed conversation covering some of content of ACE’s most recent annual review.

Arts workers were invited to submit questions via the #askACE Twitter hashtag, with officials responding to selected questions online.

Addressing a question about diversity in the sector, Bushell said ACE had been working with external consultants who made various recommendations about how the Arts Council itself should change, “which we are in the process of implementing now”.

On Brexit, ACE said that its work was having some effect, as findings from ACE-commissioned reports on the impact of the UK’s departure from the European Union were echoed in the Government’s recent Chequers White Paper.

Henley also made mention of the specific challenges facing rural communities, and in response to a question about how universities could respond to challenges facing the sector, said organisations “should never forget [the] importance” of Further Education.

Answered and unanswered

Writing after the event, Darren Henley promised ACE would “be answering all of the questions we’ve received on Twitter with the hashtag #AskACE”.

ACE has since responded to a tweet about whether the funder would consider introducing a ‘Case for Environment’ to support collaboration on ecological issues between culture and communities, saying that it was considering such an action as part of its upcoming strategy.

It also answered questions about how energy directed towards diversifying will integrate with goals for young people, and what small organisations can do to ensure their futures in the coming years.

Numerous tweets remain as yet unanswered, with questions ranging from arts pay, to sanctions for a lack of diversity in the sector, to the erosion of the additionality principle when distributing Lottery funds. The tweets include:

• As well as raising awareness in the opportunities to work in the arts via Creative Skillset & Creative and Cultural Skills, does ACE plan to support more direct action to give young people real, paid work-experience in the sector? #AskACE
• When will you publicly acknowledge that you are systematically disinvesting in grassroots creativity; that you are using #lottery money as a substitute for lack of state aid, thereby taking from those with least to give to those with most? #FromTheManyToTheFew #askace
• “Following on from Q re universities, what does @ace_national plan to address gap in arts education in many schools? #AskACE @EllieClewlow”
• “TODAY – @ArtistsUnionE would be good to #AskACE why they arent imposing some kind of sanctions against #NPOs not meeting #Diversity quota – it would be important message to send to complacent arts orgs & require genuine move to inclusion”. @theresaeaston

Micro grants

ACE already offers several small grants programmes. The revamped National Lottery Project Grants stream offers awards of up to £15k, and the new ‘Developing Your Creative Projects’ strand offers grants of between £2k and £10k to individual creatives to support the creation of new work, the development of future ideas, networking and mentoring.

But both funding streams are accessible only through ACE’s controversial funding portal Grantium, which has faced criticism for being unclear and inaccessible.

One questioner asked the ACE representatives if it would be possible to skip such a level of bureaucracy for organisations seeking smaller amounts, such as £500. De Souza said an audit trail was always needed to prove public funds had been spent wisely, but Henley said ACE was considering such questions through its consultation.

“Is there a mechanism in the future for more micro grants for people that we can do cost effectively to change people’s lives,” he asked. “We don’t know the answer yet, but it’s something we will go away and think about.”