Arts Council National Portfolio SW funding announcement

1 July 2014

Arts Council England announces funding decisions in south west for new National portfolio of organisations 2015/18

Additional £3.8million boost to south west budget
9 capital awards totalling £2.98million also announced

Today Arts Council England announced that 83 organisations in the south west will be in the National portfolio for 2015/18, receiving around £60million in funding over the three years.

A further nine south west museums in three consortia covering Bristol, Exeter & Plymouth and Cornwall will achieve Major partner museum status, receiving almost £9.3million grant in aid funding for their combined programmes of activities that make a major contribution to the Arts Council’s goals.

The awards are one strand of Arts Council England’s total investment in arts and culture during 2015/18, which also includes the National Lottery funded Grants for the arts scheme and strategic funds used to support targeted programmes of work that deliver the ambitions set out in Great art and culture for everyone, Arts Council England’s 10-year strategic framework for the arts and culture.

The National Portfolio will have 670 arts organisations and 21 Major partner museums. The investment in arts organisations for 2015/16 will be £340million compared with £355.8million in 2014/15. The budget for Major partner museums nationally is £22.6million, an increase of £1.1million. This reflects the trend for more money to be invested outside London, with £15million of investment moving from the capital.

Arts Council England have also announced capital awards totalling £71million, an increase to the Grants for the arts budget, bringing it to £70million and a new tranche of Strategic funds including a funding strand of £15million to support ambition and talent outside London.

The south west at a glance:

• 83 National portfolio organisations for 2015/18, compared to 79 in the 2012/15 portfolio

• 11 organisations joining the portfolio for the first time

• 3 organisations receiving additional funding that reflects a significant extension to their programme and ambitions

• 65 organisations receiving funding at the same level as their 2014/15 award, consolidating the core of a high-achieving sector

• A total of 122 applications to join the 2015/18 National portfolio received in the south west
• 3 Major partner museums in the south west

A full list of all the south west national portfolio organisations and major partner museums for 2015/18 appears in the Notes to editors.

National portfolio organisations

The new National portfolio is informed by the high achievement and excellent work done by south west organisations during the current three year funding agreement as well as reflecting where Arts Council England has invested in developing and strengthening the local ecology. In Exeter, for example, strategic funds were invested to develop the theatre ecology and this has resulted in a strong, vibrant theatre community and three organisations joining the portfolio – Exeter Northcott Theatre, Kaleider and The Bike Shed Theatre.

Some organisations joining the portfolio have developed as a result of strong partnership working with the Local Authority and Higher Education partners, where joint planning and investment has seen culture flourish and be recognised as a driving force in building the community, both economically and socially. Bournemouth Borough Council have worked closely with Arts Council England to develop the successful Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival, growing from an annual event to year-round engagement and participation across all communities.

Partnership working has also been vital to ensure that where there has been major capital investment such as in Southampton’s New Arts Complex, organisations can be supported to a level where they will be resilient but also encourages them to increase their earned income and look for other funding sources, such as philanthropic giving.

The 11 organisations joining the portfolio in the south west are:

• acta Community Theatre Ltd
• Black Bird/Red Rose Productions (The Mark Bruce Company)
• Bournemouth Borough Council (Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival)
• A consortium comprising: Bristol Music Trust and St George’s Bristol
• Exeter Northcott Theatre Company Ltd
• Kaleider
• MAYK Theatre Ltd
• Situations
• Tangle
• The Bike Shed Theatre
• The Point

Many of the National portfolio organisations in the south west are doing strong work in developing new talent and in working with people from communities where there is traditionally less opportunity to access arts opportunities. Amongst the organisations joining the portfolio are acta Community Theatre in Bristol, who actively engage local communities in the creation and delivery of their work; Tangle based in Somerset, a diversity-led organisation with strong artistic ambition that reflects their role as a think tank for racial equality in theatre; and The Point in Eastleigh, a combined arts venue with an exceptional approach to developing talent, engaging thousands of people in participation every year.

Excellence is strongly represented in the south west portfolio with new organisations including The Mark Bruce Company, an award-winning dance company with a strong education programme, whose ambition and exceptional talent push boundaries; and MAYK, a theatre producing organisation that collaborates with extraordinary artists and audiences to make exciting things happen in unusual ways, including through the internationally acclaimed Mayfest in Bristol.

The 3 organisations receiving significant additional investment from 2015 are:

• Asian Arts Agency
• Southampton City Council (Southampton New Arts Complex)
• Spike island

Asian Arts Agency is an arts development agency that develops, promotes and supports international, contemporary and traditional South Asian arts in the south west and beyond. They have received significant additional investment to support an extension to their area-wide touring programme and allow them to develop international opportunities.

Spike Island is a major arts organisation in Bristol providing workspace and facilities for hundreds of artists, creative individuals, businesses and students. The additional funding reflects the range and depth of its expanding exhibition programme as well as the exemplary work it has done in developing new and emerging talent.

The impact of the work done by Asian Arts Agency, Spike Island and other organisations such as Pavilion Dance South West and Bristol Music Trust and St George’s Bristol benefits communities far beyond their immediate neighbourhood and contributes strongly to Arts Council England’s mission of making great arts available to everyone.

Sheila Healy, Chair of the South West Area Council, said: ‘Culture throughout the South West is vibrant and exciting with organisations and artists doing exceptional work and engaging their whole community in inspirational and enjoyable activities. Sadly, the level of ambition demonstrated in the applications is not matched by our financial resources so we have had to make extremely difficult choices. But funding for National portfolio organisations or Major partner museums is only one part of Arts Council England’s investment programme and hopefully we may be able to support some of these organisations in other ways, such as through our Grants for the arts programme.’

Phil Gibby, Area Director, South West, Arts Council England said: ‘This is an extremely strong portfolio of organisations delivering high quality arts and cultural experiences to audiences throughout the south west.

‘Due to budget restraints we were not able to fund a number of very good applications, including some organisations which have been part of our National Portfolio in the last three years. However, we are delighted that we have maintained or increased our level of support to so many of our core organisations through this process and will continue to work to ensure that ambition, artistic adventure and entrepreneurial spirit are kept alive so that a strong countrywide cultural ecology is nurtured and maintained.’

‘We will be looking at how we can best invest in strengthening the work by and for disabled artists and audiences in the south west. Disability focused arts is one area where we felt that what we are hoping to achieve – a strong and vibrant ecology of work that reaches across the whole of the south west – was not going to be achieved solely through the National Portfolio. There is much excellent work being done by individual organisations and we want to find the best way of supporting and developing this in a joined-up national approach.’

Major partner museums

Awarded Major partner museum status for the first time is the For Cornwall Museums Partnership of six leading museums in Cornwall: Falmouth Art Gallery, National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, Royal Cornwall Museum, Wheal Martyn.

The partnership is unique, bringing together two museums run by Town Councils and four independent charitable organisation to create a ‘dispersed model of excellence’ in mainly rural locations. The museums’ collections are of regional and national significance and, working together, they are committing to building visitor numbers in imaginative ways and showing strong leadership for the whole museum sector in Cornwall. This partnership demonstrates that excellence can thrive in museums at the heart of their communities and in rural areas.

The award-winning Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and Bristol’s Museums Galleries & Archives are also named as Major partner museums for 2015/18, remaining in the portfolio.

Capital awards

Arts Council England have also announced a number of capital awards for arts organisations in the south west.

• £195,000 to Salisbury Arts Centre to upgrade and refurbish its Grade II listed church building
• £490,000 to acta Community Theatre in Bristol to extend and refurbish the acta centre
• £250,000 to Roses Theatre Trusts in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire to refurbish and enhance the theatre and make it fully accessible
• £367,187 to The Point in Eastleigh, Hampshire to improve facilities and create a sustainable building
• £180,000 to the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton to repair and upgrade equipment
• £216,146 to PREMA arts centre in Uley, Gloucestershire to undertake essential repair work to the roof
• £750,000 to Teignbridge District Council to buy technical equipment for the new multi-use arts centre, the Carlton Pavilion

Two other organisations were successful in their Stage I capital applications and have received an award to help towards the costs of continuing to develop their large-scale bids.

• £195,000 to St George’s Bristol
• £344,995 to Hall for Cornwall