Creativity and culture for everyone

Spring and summer have always meant new beginnings and fresh starts. We began this spring with the launch of our new 2023-26 National Portfolio. It’s the largest portfolio yet with 985 organisations committed to helping us realise the vision of Let’s Create. Those arts organisations, museums and libraries and the individuals who work with them are a big part of helping us see its ambitions come to life. Where we create a country in which the creativity of everyone is celebrated and supported, in which culture helps form and transform communities and where arts organisations, museums and libraries are welcoming for everyone, whoever we are and wherever we live. So that everyone living and working in villages, towns and cities across England can share in the benefits that having access to the best creative activities and cultural experiences can bring.  

Refresh and review 

The brilliant work of our National Portfolio organisations is just part of that story. We’ve also set out the steps we can take to turn Let’s Create into a reality through our Delivery Plan. Every year we look again at that plan and see what’s been achieved so far and what new ideas and projects can help us achieve even more. It’s built around five main themes that we believe will help the creative and cultural sector and the Arts Council deliver on the promises we made in Let’s Create. Today sees our refresh of that plan for the coming year. 

Fit for the future 

The last few years have seen us all face many different challenges and increased uncertainty. Our artists, arts organisations, museums and libraries have exhibited the flexibility, dynamism and adaptability that has always underpinned their everyday work. They have connected with new audiences, developed new ways of working, used new technology, and being willing to embrace new ideas. This way of thinking and working is at the heart of our theme of Building a ‘fit for the future’ cultural sector. Some of the new work we’ll be supporting in the latest stage of our Delivery Plan will see investment for those exploring the opportunities that immersive technology can offer through a £1.5 million investment in a new programme XRtists. And it’ll mean targeted work in Stoke, Bradford, and Bedfordshire and Luton to look at how philanthropy can play its part in building vibrant and vital creative and cultural lives in communities.  

Places on the up  

Stoke, Bradford, and Bedfordshire and Luton are three of our 54 Priority Places. Our work in all of these communities is central to another of our themes: Strengthening our place-based approach and supporting Levelling Up. As part of that, we’ve committed to increasing both the amount of time that our colleagues spend in our Priority Places and our financial investment in them. We’ve also launched a new round of our £20 million Capital Investment Programme. It supports organisations wanting to make changes to their buildings or equipment to improve access, to take advantage of new technology, and to make them more environmentally friendly.  And we’re continuing to deliver further rounds of the Cultural Investment Fund on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This investment allows cultural organisations to carry out building and infrastructure work that gives better access to local collections and unlocks potential growth in local economies. We’re also working with partners to deliver the Levelling Up Fund Place Programme. Led by Historic England it’ll support those places that have received Levelling Up Fund awards to create successful cultural programmes.  

Supporting more people 

All the projects I have mentioned rely hugely on one thing for their success. That’s the talent, skills and experience of those working in arts organisations, museums and libraries. Many of these people are freelancers. We know that being a freelancer can be precarious in terms of pay, conditions and an individual’s wellbeing. We’re committed to working within and outside the cultural sector to directly support and invest in freelancers, and to listen, learn and collaborate to build a better picture of what support individual creative practitioners need. To help inform this, we’re launching a major ongoing survey of freelancers that will enable us to track how things are changing over time. This means we will have a much stronger evidence base that we can share widely to inform the thinking and practice of policymakers and employers. This sits alongside our review of our National Lottery Project Grants. Here, we’ve worked with freelancers to better understand how well this programme supports individual applicants. We’ve also published an evaluation of Developing Your Creative Practice. Again, we’re using this to look to improve the way the fund works for individuals. 

On the world stage 

We’re continuing to support creative practitioners and cultural organisations to work internationally too. We’re helping to build new networks and collaborations with international partners including France, Germany, Italy and the Nordic and Baltic states. This includes developing a new partnership with Italy to support dance and disability and building on the success of international city-to-city work like that between Manchester, Aarhus and Aalborg. In doing so, we remain committed to reducing the environmental impact of working internationally. 

The journey continues 

When the Delivery Plan was first launched in 2021, I described it as a roadmap to our eventual destination of an England transformed into a truly creative nation. With our new National Portfolio and the refreshed Delivery Plan that destination is now a step closer.