Hardship fund for arts twice as big as government's sector programme

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 25 Jun 2009

Arts Council England has unleashed a recession hardship fund for the arts worth double the value of that released by the Government for the entire voluntary sector in the Budget last week.

A £40m grants programme has been opened up by the Council for artists and arts organisations struggling as a result of the recession. It follows the unveiling of a £20m hardship fund for the sector as a whole released as part of the Budget last Wednesday, 22 April; a fund which divided opinion among charities.

The Arts Council says it will be “radically reducing” its Lottery reserves to fund the £40m ‘Sustain’ programme, to which all arts organisations will be able to apply for two-year grants ranging between £75,000 to £3m. The scheme is designed as a 'rapid response' programme and aims to fund successful applicants within six weeks of application.

In addition to the special hardship funding, the organisation has received a £4m increase of Lottery funding for its general grants for the arts budget, which will rise from £52m in the current financial year to £56m in 2010/2011.

The Budget saw a £4m reduction in government funding for the Council’s managed funds, but a spokesman for the Council said that the equivalent increase in general grants funding was not to compensate for the government cuts.

Responding further to the impact of recession, the Council also released £500,000 into the Town Centres Initiative in which abandoned retail spaces are given over to artists and arts organisations for creative activities.

Dame Liz Forgan, chair of the Council, insisted that funding of the arts was critical through times of economic difficulty.

“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,” she said.

Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

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