Circolombia, Roundhouse. Credit: Jonathan Birch
Realising the vision and goals requires changes in the way that we work with our partners. But the arts sector itself must change if it is to sustain excellence and reach more people. Mobilising behind long-term ambitions requires shared purpose and joint effort. The goals can only be achieved through partnership.
Change is an imperative for the Arts Council. The organisation is getting smaller. Just as significant is a new culture within the organisation, a culture that aims to be more permeable, inclusive, open and collaborative. While we will always seek to be bold in grasping opportunities for the benefit of the arts, our starting point will be – who can we work with? Who can we support to undertake this task? Our strategic framework will see us working even more effectively across all three of our roles.
Championing the arts
We will continue to use our advocacy to champion the value of the arts within society and the economy, working with our funded organisations, the media, and broadcast partners to reach more people.
Our consultation confirmed the value our stakeholders place on partnerships as central to sustainable growth, especially in the context of reduced public funding for the arts.
We will lead by example, aiming to be a key partner within the public sector at local and national levels. We will make the most of our unique overview of the arts to broker beneficial relationships. We will pursue a partnership approach where it offers the most effective means of delivering the greatest benefit from our investment. In doing so, we will engage in partnerships that involve genuine reciprocity and which harness the wide-ranging expertise and knowledge of our partners in pursuit of our collective goals.
In particular, we will develop partnerships with central government, especially departments whose work impacts on the arts. We will work hard to sustain our long-standing relationship with local government, focusing most where there is evidence of, or strong potential for, a shared agenda for the arts. In addition, we will use the framework of our goals to identify partners across the wider cultural sector, the creative commercial sector, with higher education and with the voluntary and amateur sectors. We will encourage partnerships with the private and philanthropic charitable sectors.
In turn, we will ask for greater collaboration among the organisations and artists we fund so that they can work collectively to increase the impact of the arts. We will empower arts leaders to become leaders in civil society, contributing to and shaping their wider public and artistic communities.
Developing the arts
We will use the goals in our strategic framework to identify the challenges and opportunities that could most effectively develop the arts, if addressed successfully. Our priorities indicate what we believe to be the key challenges over the next few years.
Investing in the arts
We will make informed decisions about how best to allocate public money to ensure that the arts thrive. We have reviewed and improved our funding programmes to ensure that they have the most impact.
We wish to become a more proactive investor, using the five goals as the framework within which we make decisions and establishing mutually beneficial relationships with those we fund.
Our funding programmes recognise the need for more flexibility in the kinds of relationships we have with arts organisations. All funded organisations will need to demonstrate how they help us to achieve the goals. We will seek to establish deeper strategic relationships with those best placed to take on a leadership role in relation to their art form, geography or specialism. For others, the focus of our relationship will be the programmes of work they deliver. Grants for the arts will focus on new relationships and individual artists. And we will create a strategic Lottery fund to address new challenges and opportunities.
