Arts Council England Announces £44.5 Million Of Initiatives To Sustain The Arts Through Recession

Arts Council England will invest an extra £44.5 million in artists and arts organisations over the next two years to help maintain artistic excellence during the economic downturn.

These counter-recessionary measures were announced by Chair Dame Liz Forgan, in a speech at an Arts Council sponsored seminar, Maximising the importance of arts and culture through the economic downturn, today 24 April 2009, in London.

The initiatives include:

* Sustain - a new £40 million open application fund for arts organisations suffering as a result of the recession
* £500,000 support for the Town Centres Initiative to enable more artistic activities to take place in empty retail spaces
* A £4 million increase in the Grants for the arts budget over the next two years

Dame Liz called for public and private funders alike to maintain their levels of investment in the arts, and for artists to see themselves not as victims of the recession but as a key part of its solution. She said:

"The Arts Council has three overarching aims as we plan for the coming years: Great art for everyone will be our mission in life. We will continue to support innovation and creative courage. And we will focus on recovery.

"Of course we understand that the national debt has to be tackled, but a few million off the arts budget is going to make no appreciable difference to that task. On the other hand it could undermine years of creative and financial investment.

"The Arts Council will do all it can to keep that investment in place. We cannot protect artists from the realities of recession, but we can be as imaginative, open and useful as possible in our efforts to get us all through this with minimal damage to the creative life of this country."

The new funds have been made available by the Arts Council radically reducing its Lottery cash balances over the next two years.

Sustain is a new £40 million fund that will provide extra financial support and expert help and advice for organisations under pressure specifically as a result of recession. Grants from £75,000 to £3 million will be awarded and the programme will run initially over two years, 2009/10 and 2010/11. Any arts organisation can apply but priority will be given to those who are seen as vital to the Arts Council achieving its mission of Great art for everyone.

Sustain has been designed as a rapid response fund and it is hoped that the turn around from application to award will be a maximum of six weeks.

Arts Council England has also set aside £500,000 to support the Town Centres Initiative announced by Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government and Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, on 14 April. Hundreds of artists across the country are already helping to reinvigorate ailing town centres by taking over empty retail space for creative activities and it is hoped this new fund, which will award grants of £1,000 to £10,000 will enable many more to do so.

There will also be additional support for individual artists and smaller arts organisations through the Arts Council's existing Grants for the arts programme. The 2009/10 budget for the Grants for the arts will be increased from £52 to £54 million and will rise again in 2010/11 to £56 million. These additional funds will be available to individuals and organisations not qualifying for a Sustain grant, as well as to anyone applying to Grants for the arts in the normal way.

Further information about Grants for the arts is available at artscouncil.org.uk/funding

Delivering the final speech of the day, Dame Liz Forgan concluded:

"The real challenge for the arts sector is not to ask ‘what is the government going to do to help us?' but ‘what can we do to help the country weather and recover from this downturn?'

"Showing that we can make a real contribution in even the most difficult of times will be the best case we can make for continued public investment in the arts through - and just as importantly - beyond the recession."

Between 2008 and 2011, Arts Council England will invest £1.3 billion of public money from government and a further £0.3 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.

For more information on Arts Council England's action on the recession, including Sustain, go to artscouncil.org.uk/actiononrecession

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