Independent Review of the Arts Council - do you want to comment?

The Government has commissioned an Independent Review of the Arts Council England (ACE). 

There's an Open Call for Evidence - which means the likes of you and me and/or the organisations we are affiliated to could provide evidence to the Review

We want to hear from anyone who has an interest in or a view about the operation of the Arts Council England and what it delivers. From the users of the art forms ACE funds, through creative practitioners, freelancers, national, local or community based organisations and institutions, all views will be welcomed and taken into consideration.

• These are the Survey Questions.
• YOU can complete your submission online - and are encouraged to do so
• This call for evidence closes at midday on 24 April 2025.

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Why have a review of Arts Council England?

The objective is summarised in the quotations below. The introductory questions in bold are mine.

Is cultural excellence attuned to a local voices?

The Arts Council England review is an opportunity to examine how to bring cultural excellence to every corner of the country while amplifying local voices in decision-making. 

How to foster creativity?

It will consider how Arts Council England nurtures creativity at all levels - from community arts to international masterpieces - and explore ways to enhance this through stronger dynamic partnerships between national and regional stakeholders. 

Can you have a world class culture which is accessible and has a community focus?

At its heart, this review asks how we can ensure this country has a vibrant, accessible arts ecosystem that truly serves all communities and delivers world-class culture at every level.

This last one is the nitty gritty of what makes this review difficult. How do you achieve excellence at a national level is you also need to make sure you are delivering for local people.

What is ACE?

Cultural development post election - the promises and who decides who gets what

The Art Newspaper seems to think that the outcome of the UK election could trigger a cultural bonanza based on the notion that

Both the major political parties make big promises about new money for the arts

When I started reading the article it occurred to me maybe there was another perspective based on timelines that it may have missed and the sort of lobbying that goes on behind the scenes in terms of what gets into any political party's manifesto.

First here are the promises - it's worth making a record of what they aim to do. I've abbreviated and bullet pointed where appropriate.

Then I reflect on how it might all work - and who might decide who gets what.

If there is a Conservative Government

This is what the Conservative Manifesto says - albeit I had to find most of this by plugging in words to the find command while viewing the pdf file. It's not very accessible!

Prosperous towns and cities across Britain - page

Our towns and cities excel when they have vibrant cultural life. Britain’s arts and culture are world-beating and are at the heart of the regeneration of much of modern Britain. 

We will 

• continue our strong support for the arts, and ensure more of that support is based outside London.
• maintain free entry to the permanent collections of our major national museums and galleries. 
• introduce a new cultural development fund to use cultural investment to turn around communities. 
• hold a Great Exhibition of the North in 2018, to celebrate amazing achievements in innovation, the arts and engineering. 
• support a UK city in making a bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. 
• in this 70th Anniversary Year of the Edinburgh Festival we will support the development of the new Edinburgh Concert Hall, reaffirming Edinburgh as the UK’s leading festival city and a cultural beacon around the globe.

A Knowledge Rich Curriculum - page 50-51

We will 

• ensure all children have access to an academic, knowledge-rich curriculum. 
• introduce a curriculum fund to encourage Britain’s leading cultural and scientific institutions, like the British Museum and others to help develop knowledge-rich materials for our schools, 

Shared institutions of Union - page 34-45

For too long, power in Britain has been centred in London. This means opportunity has centred in London too. It is time major cities around Britain shared in the government of the United Kingdom. 

We will 

• proceed on the same basis with the arts and cultural organisations that give our United Kingdom such strength. 
• Channel 4 will remain publicly owned and will be relocated out of London
• work with the nation’s most eminent museums and galleries to ensure their works and expertise are shared across the country

If there is a Labour Government

Labour have a LOT more to say about Culture and the arts

The Business of Arts Organisations

Should all arts organisations earn money from diverse activities within the private sector in addition to their prime function?

Whether your organisation is large or small, state-funded or entirely voluntary, there's scope to learn from what's being happening in the last three years to organisations which receive public funding.

Sir Peter Bazalgette

Sir Peter Bazelgette - currently Chair of Arts Council England (and the man responsible for bringing 'Big Brother' to the UK plus 'Ready Steady Cook' and 'Changing Rooms')  and who is about to become Chair of ITV in early 2017 - spoke recently at an event - Sir Peter Bazalgette on the Business of the Arts - organised by the Creative Industries Federation

The businessman with a passion for the sector will examine questions including what makes successful arts organisations and creative businesses tick.

He expressed his personal views last week on why and how arts organisations can earn money privately - in addition to getting grants from public funding and raising funds through primary activities (eg selling tickets).

Apparently following cuts in funding arts organisations have had to become entrepreneurs.

arts organisations had revealed their “entrepreneurial flair” as he announced figures showing that supplementary income for the largest 600 organisations it funds — revenue generated by activities such as café and restaurant sales and merchandising — had risen by three-quarters between 2012-13 and 2015-16. Financial Times

This is the speech he made (pdf) I've summarised its important key points below and added in my own comments in places.

These are the articles by the proper journalists. Guess which one skimmed the release of the speech.

• Galleries and theatres should run B&Bs to earn money, Arts Council chairman suggests | The Telegraph
• Arts counter cuts with creative ways of generating cash | Financial Times
• Arts Council Chair celebrates sector’s entrepreneurial flair | Arts Professional

FUNDING

Context: Historical Funding Model

One of the Arts Councils strategic goals was that

Arts organisations and museums have increased the share of their income that comes from a wider range of contributed or earned income sources

The context was

• mixed funding model - public investment, earned income and charitable donations using the analogy of a three-legged stool. You need all three legs, or you fall over.

[There's a YouTube video about the Arts Council Funding Ecology - although it is rather more about how it distributes the funds it gets rather than how it actually creates a strategy which reflects the robustness of assumptions made about all sources of income over time.]

Three Key Objectives for each source of funding

• PUBLIC investment - stabilise funding levels by articulating value of investment
• CONTRIBUTIONS of charitable donations - increase giving by raising the charitable profile of arts organisations
• EARNED income - broaden and boost their earned income, beyond ticket sales to include educational activity and ‘supplementary’ income from commercial activities and other revenue streams – cafes, restaurants, car parks, merchandise, services and skills.

I stressed how critical it was to diversify revenues.

Real Changes in Funding

• Between 2012/13 and 2015/16, TOTAL overall income of the National Portfolio (600 larger, publicly funded arts organisations) rose more than 20% to £1.75 Billion.
• In percentage terms: 
• PUBLIC funding distributed by the Arts Council via Grant in Aid and Lottery funds remained largely the same, at 22%. Local Authority funding has declined to just over 6% 
• CONTRIBUTIONS - personal giving plus gifts from trusts and foundations have increased their share of overall income up by 1.5%. 
• EARNED income has grown from just over three quarters of a billon to more than £1 billion - up by more than 25%. 

Earned Income - The Story to Date

• Earned income is ticket sales, hospitality, merchandising and other commercial revenues.
• Commercial income now accounts for more than 50% of the total funding
• Income from ticket sales and educational activity has declined slightly
• income from supplementary activity has grown by 75%.
• the trends are not uniform across the country as rural areas pose challenges for businesses of all sorts. In the rural South West supplementary income actually declined by 60% over 4 years but was offset by ticket sales and other core activities increasing by just over 50%.
• Examples of ventures earning commercial income include:
• major improvements to catering operations
• making space available for hire
• charity shops in places where there are tourists
• sale of branded goods by those with strong visual brands
• bed and breakfast or hostel spaces run as part of the arts space
• ticketing in car parks
• promotion of venues and localities for film locations
• recording music for commercial ventures

It shows that arts organisations are increasingly run by business-minded leaders who understand that when you run a great business, it’s a lot easier to make great art.

It's a good story - but what does this have to do with the Arts Council?