Grants for the arts Libraries fund

Grants for the arts: Libraries fund

Visiting children’s class at Dalston CLR James Library in London. Photo: Michael Cameron Photography

Arts Council England’s mission statement:

To get great art to everyone by championing, developing and

investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives.

Grants for the arts: What is it?

Background• first launched in April 2003

• customer focused

• equality of opportunity

• grants to individuals and organisations

• light touch

• quick decisions – six or12 week turnaround

• flexibility built in

• national assessment in Manchester

• online application

Grants for the arts: What is it?

For time limited arts-related activities that:

• engage people in England • help artists and arts and culture organisations in England

carry out their work

No deadlines

Grants for the arts Libraries fund

“This fund will be for projects that stimulate ambitious, innovative partnerships between libraries and artists and arts organisations and which encourage communities to participate in artistic and cultural activities. The £6 million available will be accessible exclusively to projects that are led by public libraries in partnership with arts and cultural organisations.”



• ring-fenced budget of £6 million, additional to other Grants for the arts funds

• 2.5 year programme: Sept 2012 to March 2015• rolling programme – no deadlines• assessed against Grants for the arts criteria (with an

emphasis on the outcomes below) by the Grants for the arts team

Outcome-driven:• stimulating ambitious, innovative partnerships between

libraries and arts organisations• encouraging communities to participate in artistic and

cultural activities

What does Grants for the arts fund?

A mother and daughter at Dalston CLR James Library in London. Photo: Michael Cameron Photographyfford

How much can I apply for?

•the minimum amount that can be applied for is £1,000

•the maximum amount is £100,000 (however there are exceptions):

– permissions– national activities

Who can apply?

• the lead applicant must be a public library, public library authority, network of public library authorities, or organisation managing a public library authority, as defined under the Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964. Lead applicants will need to confirm their status in the Management section of their proposal

• this is because the funds allocated to this programme are designated for supporting public libraries specifically. Other types of library are still eligible to apply for support through the standard Grants for the arts process

What types of activities can we support?

• Grants for the arts funds are intended to support arts activities (projects with artistic aims and outcomes)

• we cannot fund libraries’ core work through Grants for the arts, as this is the responsibility of local authorities. We cannot fund non arts-related work through Grants for the arts.

• however, we can support a wide range of arts activities that support, enhance and enrich libraries’ core work, and develop libraries’ role as a cultural provider in their communities.

Grants for the arts Libraries: What can we support?

•we can consider funding activities involving any of the artforms that come under the Arts Council’s remit: theatre, music, dance, literature, visual arts, and combined arts

•we can consider funding a broad variety of types of activity, for example: festivals, exhibitions, workshop programmes, residencies, digital projects, performances, and so on.

What does Grants for the arts fund?

Arts-related activities including:

• projects and events

• activities for people to take part in

• commissions and productions

• public art

• residencies

• research and development

• audience development and marketing activities

• buying assets such as equipment

• organisational development

• professional development and training

• touring

Photo: Alex Taylor

Developing your application

The assessment criteria

Four criteria:

• the quality of the activity and the quality of effect the activity will have on the people experiencing it, or its ongoing effect on artistic practice (or both)

• how the public will engage with the activity, immediately or in the longer term

• how the activity will be managed and its ongoing effect on the applicant

• how realistic the activity is financially, and its future effect

An evidence-based process

• Grants for the arts uses an evidence-based assessment process and applications cannot rely on assumed knowledge

• the more information that an applicant can give us that evidences that the activity is well planned, will have good artistic outcomes, is financially sound and will engage people successfully (plans, the reasoning behind decisions made, timelines for the activity, target audiences, marketing plans), the better

• even provisional plans are helpful to allow us to see an applicant’s thinking. See our ‘How to apply’ booklet and the ‘Understanding assessment’ information sheet on our website for more information

Artistic outcomes

• Grants for the arts funds can only be used to support arts activity, so we need to know the artistic outcomes of the project

• we want to know why applicants have selected the artists/organisations they’ve chosen to work with (eg expertise in working with a specific group of people, or the high quality of their work). If an applicant tells us the artistic rationale behind their choices, we can consider this in our assessment of their project

Artistic outcomes (cont)

What do we mean by artistic aims and outcomes?

We want to see that the main aims of the activity are clearly related to artistic development. This could be demonstrated, for example, through:

•delivering a programme of work that will allow audiences/participants to experience high quality artistic work

•providing opportunities for participants in an activity to develop their own artistic skills and/or produce their own artistic work

•offering artistic development opportunities to artists through activities such as residencies or commissioning new work

•providing opportunities for using the arts in new contexts

Artistic outcomes (cont)

• we assess quality based on the information given by applicants in the ‘You and your work’ section of the proposal, and other information such as artists’ CVs.

• we are looking for evidence that a project delivers an excellent quality of experience for participants. This is about showing that the needs of the target audience have been considered, and that the artistic experience they will have is good quality in context.

Window poetry by Alyson Hallett (photo: Marc Hill, Apex)

Partnership working

Partnership working

• partnership working is particularly key to the desired outcomes of this designated fund. We look to see that any activity is supported by appropriate partnerships. Here, we are aiming to stimulate mutually beneficial partnerships between arts organisations and libraries to achieve strong outcomes for both sectors

• arts sector partners might be fully involved with the initial development of the project right from concept stage, or might lead on specific aspects of an activity (audience development or artistic programming, for example)

Poet Frances Leviston reading at Durham Book Festival (photo: Andy Taylor)

Reading-specific projects

A visitor at Paignton Library and Information Centre in Torbay. Photo: Michael Cameron

Photography

Reading-specific projects

Organisations can apply for the development and delivery of projects that support access to reading for pleasure for individuals and communities.

Projects might include reading group activity, events, workshops, residencies and promotions. They might also help readers to enjoy and engage with a diverse range of literature. We focus on projects that promote the reading of literary fiction, poetry and work in translation.

Reading-specific projects (cont)

• it is important to note that as our funds must be allocated to arts activity, proposals for reading development activity must tell us how the activity will – immediately or in the longer term – lead to more people reading literary work for pleasure.

• reading projects focusing solely on non-fiction may struggle to score well against Gfta criteria.

• while improved literacy is a positive outcome of this type of project, we need to see the artistic basis of the project to be able to consider it for funding.


Engagement

Engagement

• one of library services’ great strengths is their ability to reach a diverse range of communities, and their knowledge of the needs of those communities. Encouraging active participation in arts activities is key to the desired outcomes of this fund

• applicants should think about (and articulate):- the target audiences for the activity- the nature of the participant experience – how will

participants have an excellent artistic experience?- audience development – is an activity designed to engage

new audiences (hard-to-reach groups, for example)?- how will the activity be marketed?- have communities been involved in the planning of the

activity?


Working with different artforms

Craft session at Deptford Lounge Library in London. Photo: Michael Cameron Photography

Libraries and different artforms

• through the designated Libraries fund we would particularly welcome applications that involve artists and arts organisations working in other artforms (or across different artforms) as part of the emphasis on widening the scope of library applicants’ ambitions

• we would encourage prospective library service applicants to consider the variety of different roles that libraries could play within projects, for example, as a host for a residency, a commissioner of new work, curator of festival activity, reading development organisation, or venue

Scale and ambition

• historically, applications from library services have been relatively limited in their scope and scale, with a high number of under £10,000 applications for a fairly uniform range of activities.

• we want to support and enable libraries and library services to broaden their scope in terms of the scale and value of their applications to us. We would encourage applicants to be ambitious in devising their activities.

• please note that applications for under £10,000 will still be eligible for consideration under this fund

Support available for prospective applicants

• regional workshops, beginning in Autumn 2012

• conversations with Relationship Managers (Libraries RMs and other artform RMs)

• information page on external Arts Council England website

• programme-specific guidance sheet on the Grants for the arts and Libraries pages of the website

• case studies published on the Arts Council’s Libraries web pages

• advice from the Arts Council’s Enquiries team

Photo: Alex Taylor

Making an application

The application form

Budget with help notes


How to make your application eligible

Key eligibility points for public library applicants to note include: •we can only fund arts-related activities•we expect at least 10 per cent of the total cost of the activity to come from other sources•we cannot fund activities retrospectively (that is, we are unable to fund activities, including buying goods or services, which take place or start before we are able to reach a decision about your application) •we can only fund activities that engage the public •we cannot fund ongoing overhead costs that are already paid for by other income (eg local authority income)


How to make your application eligible (Libraries fund)

• in the section of the online application form called ‘Description of the activity’, we ask: ‘What is the name or working title of the activity you are applying to do?’

• libraries applicants should give the name of their activity, followed by the suffix (Libraries fund)

• eg:

Artist in residence project at Newtown Libraries (Libraries fund)


Arts Council England approach to partnership funding

• it expects you to find at least 10 per cent of the total cost of your activity from other income sources – this is a minimum

• for projects which related to other sectors for example health, education, social exclusion, Arts Council England expects other agencies to be providing significant amounts of partnership funding

Libraries: partnership funding

• Grants for the arts requires applicants to demonstrate a minimum of 10 per cent match funding in an application

• this can be made up of cash support, in kind support, or a mixture of the two

• we appreciate that library services may not always be in a strong position to secure high levels of external cash support

• we ask library applicants to consider the types of in kind support available to them, and how they might effectively represent this in their budget

• in kind support is goods or services that an applicant would usually have to pay for, but has secured for free

Andrew Motion poem in SheffieldPhoto: Jack Eames

Assessment and decision making

The assessment process

Offer Reject

ContractGrant monitoring

ContractGrant monitoring

FeedbackFeedback

The assessment criteria

Four criteria

• the quality of the activity and the quality of effect the activity will have on the people experiencing it, or its ongoing effect on artistic practice (or both)

• how the public will engage with the activity, immediately or in the longer term

• how the activity will be managed and its ongoing effect on the applicant

• how realistic the activity is financially, and its future effect

Andrew Motion poem in SheffieldPhoto: Jack Eames

Thank you

Children perform at 12 Moves dance event at The Hive Library in Worcester. Photo:

Michael Cameron Photography

Documents

Grants for the arts Libraries fund