Like our other strategic funding programmes, grant commissions will enable the Arts Council to achieve its priorities set out in Achieving great art for everyone.
Grant commissions are a new way of doing things for the Arts Council. This approach enables the arts sector to apply to deliver a particular piece of work to a detailed and specific brief given by the Arts Council. These grants will draw on knowledge and expertise from England’s fast growing creative economy to help achieve the Arts Council’s goals and priorities.
Unlike the strategic funding grant programmes, where the Arts Council defines the outcomes we wish to see but not necessarily how to achieve them, we will define the outcomes to be achieved with grant commissions and also be specific about how those outcomes should be achieved.
Our current grant commissions are:
- Audience focus - a £7.5 million fund from which we will commission work to make the arts more audience focused, and invest in initiatives that increase, widen and sustain audiences and visitors for the arts, museums and libraries
- Artsmark delivery - an open selection process will be launched to find a national provider to continue to develop and deliver the Artsmark scheme as it extends to cover our new responsibilities for museums and libraries
- Creative people and places - a £37 million fund will focus our investment in parts of the country where people’s involvement in the arts is significantly below the national average, with the aim of increasing the likelihood of participation
- Strategic investment in theatre in Exeter - a programme to support the provision of high quality theatre in Exeter. Applications now closed.
- North Area Jazz Development Programme - a commission to develop jazz across the North East, North West and Yorkshire
Assessment criteria
There will be three common areas of assessment for grant commissions:
- How well does the application meet the brief?
- How strong is the management of activity?
- How financially viable is the application?
Decisions
Decisions will normally be made by Management Committee in line with their delegated levels of authority and existing Terms of Reference.
Decisions over the value of £3 million will be made by National Council or a sub-committee of Council.
Support
Commissioned funds applicants can contact our Enquiries team for advice and support.
Complaints
Any complaints regarding grant decisions under this process will be handled through our existing standard complaints procedure.
