Supporting the National Portfolio and Creative People and Places consortia during Covid-19

Today, we launch the third and final element of our Emergency Response Package, devised to help support our national cultural ecology to survive the COVID-19 crisis: a fund of up to £90m, available to support National Portfolio Organisations and Creative People and Places consortia. They play a critical role in our cultural ecology, as employers and commissioners as well as makers of work. By doing our best to help them to weather the coming months, we believe we’ll deepen and strengthen our support of the sector as a whole. At the same time as we announce this fund, the first two elements of our Emergency Response Package – funds targeted at individuals and independent cultural organisations – are underway.

The significant demand that we’ve seen for those funds (over five thousand applications in the first round) is a signal of the specific and acute impact Covid-19 has had on our sector, and particularly on its most vulnerable members. As a result, over the next few weeks we’ll need to make extraordinarily tough decisions, and ultimately deliver very difficult news to people whose applications were good and worthwhile. I’m desperately sorry for this, and I wish there were more we could do. For those of you who are unsuccessful, I very much hope you’re able to access other hardship funds, alongside appropriate forms of government support. I also hope that we, as organisations and individuals who work in the arts, museums and libraries, can unite at this moment to offer compassion to those who are struggling, and practical help wherever possible.

Our task this summer is a profoundly challenging one, but it’s also straightforward: to hold on to as much of that ecology as we can

As I look ahead to the next few months, the most positive image I can conjure is of a sector in a holding pattern. Thanks to the gains of the last decade, we have a great deal to hold on to: the growth and excellence of our creative industries; a new generation of exciting, diverse organisations; the significant steps we’ve taken at Arts Council England to make investments more equitably across the whole country; the expansion of our support for museums and libraries; and perhaps most of all, the array of brilliant work produced by our artists, curators and creative practitioners that has delighted audiences and participants across the land.

Our task this summer is a profoundly challenging one, but it’s also straightforward: to hold on to as much of that ecology as we can. The challenges for NPOs are different from those for individuals. Whilst most are not at imminent risk of closure this month, the situation now will see them facing mounting problems and potential crunch points as the weeks pass. So the NPO and CPP consortia fund we’re announcing today has one job, and one job only: to help ensure that organisations have the cash to survive the summer.

This fund is not about portfolio building. It’s in essence an intervention fund – a pot of last resort, designed only to buy time. In applying to it, therefore, you, as an NPO or CPP consortium, must ask yourself one question. Having taken full advantage of other government and Arts Council help, having identified all usable reserves, and having drawn on any other income you can – will there still be a shortfall in your finances before the end of September? This question is a challenging one, and answering it honestly will involve facing up to losses: of precious reserves, and of long-cherished plans. But in order for us to ensure the survival of as much of the cultural sector as possible, we must ask you, now, to apply only for what you truly require, so that our money can help save as many organisations as possible. Ideally, we would not have to use all of the allocated £90m for this emergency period, because we anticipate that bigger investments will be necessary later to help the sector reopen. We will therefore scrutinize large requests very closely to ensure they are based on real need. But ultimately, we’re trusting everyone to be unselfish, and to act individually in the best interests of the whole.

As ever, we’ll do our best to make sure that our decisions are carefully balanced, in order to ensure that diverse organisations are supported, that the geographical spread of funding is proportionate, that all artforms and disciplines are represented, that we back organisations of every size from the largest to the smallest and that we emerge from this crisis with a National Portfolio that is well-placed to help us deliver “Let’s Create”, our new 10-year strategy. Our portfolio contains a collection of savvy, well-run businesses – but a particular irony of the current crisis is that organisations with a high proportion of earned income, in normal times a mark of resilience, are more vulnerable now. We suspect that such organisations will be among those most likely to need our help. On the other hand, this fund should not be viewed as a route to financial support for organisations whose business models are faltering for reasons other than COVID-19. But I want to reassure you that we have made no advance judgments on individual organisations. The fund is open to all NPOs and CPP consortia, and each application will be judged on merit, and financial need.

Sometimes, in making the case for the value of culture, we contemplate a world denuded of it. We’re still a long way away from such a dystopia – thanks in large part to the creative ingenuity of artists and organisations who, over the past weeks, have delivered culture directly into people’s homes by any and all means possible. But our theatres, galleries and museums were among the first organisations to be asked to close their doors in this crisis, and their loss has been keenly felt. As soon as we have administered these funds, therefore, we will turn from the immediate emergency to the future.

I’m looking forward to the moment when we start to think about how our sector can play its part in putting the soul back into our communities

We are acutely aware that for many of you, the real challenge will come when the current crisis ends, and the work of reopening, rebuilding and rethinking begins. We understand this, and we will be making the case to Government for the critical need to support our sector through the next stage. Again, I want to thank our DCMS Secretary of State Oliver Dowden, our Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage and DCMS and HM Treasury officials for the speed and supportiveness of their response so far, which has allowed us to do what’s needed in assembling this Emergency Response Package. I’d also like to thank our partners in local government, who have continued to place a high value on culture despite having to juggle so many competing priorities, and are supporting artists and cultural organisations in villages, towns and cities across England by showing similar flexibility around their grants.

We’ll continue to work with local and national government to consider the different scenarios that face us down the line. For myself, I’m looking forward to the moment when we start to think about how our sector can play its part in putting the soul back into our communities; about how we move beyond rescue and into recovery. Creativity and culture have the power to help everyone to live happier, more fulfilled lives. At no time in recent history has there been a greater need for the enrichment that you and your organisations offer, which is why sustained and strategic public investment in the arts, museums and libraries is so profoundly important at this moment. I believe very strongly that artists, arts organisations, museums and libraries will be central to our national renewal over the months and years ahead.

For now, though, I want to thank you for the co-operation, compassion and solidarity you’ve shown over the last month.   As we navigate this storm, we’ll need to continue to draw on your adaptability and endurance.  There will be loss, and there will be change – much of it painful. But I promise that all of us here at the Arts Council will be with you every step of the way, doing our very best to shelter the inspiring organisations and brilliant people who make up the sector we’re so proud to serve.