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Investment Principles

Investment Principles

To achieve the Strategy’s three Outcomes, both Arts Council England and the organisations and people we invest in will need to change. Our four Investment Principles will help steer that change. We believe that organisations that are committed to applying them will be better able to deliver the Outcomes, and to provide greater benefit to the public

Over the next 10 years we want to create an environment in which cultural organisations can more readily change and develop, as well as come and go. By 2030 we will be investing in organisations and people that differ, in many cases, from those that we support today. Some will be members of our current National Portfolio that have evolved to meet the future needs of communities and artists. Others will be new to us. Their work will be valued by their communities, creative practitioners and partners. Collectively, they will reflect the diversity of this country.

We will expect organisations seeking investment from us to tell us what plans they have to apply each of the four Principles, and how they will work on improving their performance against them. It will be the Arts Council’s responsibility to ensure that each organisation’s plan is appropriate and ambitious, and it will be the responsibility of the organisation’s board to monitor and report on the progress they are making. We will encourage organisations to learn from what works best around the world, and support them to change where needed.

We will also apply these Principles to our own organisation, setting out how we intend to develop and improve, and we will report on our progress.

Adult reading a story to a group of children sat on the floor
Photo by Punchdrunk’s The Lost Lending Library. Photo © Paul Cochrane
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Coloured squares around text which says 'Ambition & Quality'

Ambition & Quality

The public deserve the best in return for their investment, so the Arts Council is committed to the pursuit of the highest quality in everything we do. We believe in the value of training and skills, and we will use our investment to support organisations to develop talent and improve quality – across all their creative work and processes, and in the way in which they run their organisations.

We do not believe that certain types or scales of creative activity are inherently better or of greater value than others: excellence can be found in village halls and concert halls, and in both the process of participation and the work that is produced. We are committed to backing organisations and creative practitioners of all ages who have the potential to excel at what they do, as well as supporting those who are already at the top of their game.

Judgments about quality are inevitably complex and open to debate. We will therefore continue to work with the cultural sector to establish a shared language around it, which we will draw on as we consider and explain our investment decisions. But in the end it will be the Arts Council’s responsibility to use our experience and expertise to make the judgments that determine those decisions.

We want to invest in organisations that are bold, and are determined to improve the quality of their work. We will expect applicants to set out their ambitions when they apply to us for investment, and to talk about how they plan to make their work better. We will expect them to gather the views of the public and their peers on the quality of what they do, and use that feedback in discussion with their staff and boards to shape future decisions about their work. We expect them to be aware of the best work in their field – wherever it happens in the world – and to tell us how they will apply that knowledge to their own development.

Coloured squares around text which says 'Dynamism'

Dynamism

As we move through the next decade, we expect to see changes in the tastes and habits of the public, alongside new technological opportunities, and ongoing pressure on public funding. To navigate these opportunities and risks successfully, cultural organisations will need to become more dynamic. This may involve organisations changing both their missions and their business models.

We will expect cultural organisations, especially those in our National Portfolio, to invest in their workforces in order to develop the skills required to respond as quickly and effectively as possible to a rapidly changing external environment. Good governance and leadership will be critical in inspiring positive change and growing teams that are happy, inclusive and able to draw on the widest possible range of ideas and experiences in order to build successful businesses over the next decade. Cultural organisations will need to become more entrepreneurial and develop business models that help them maximise income, reduce costs and become more financially resilient. We will expect them to look for opportunities to share services and explore mergers with other organisations.

We want to see the development of a more informed and effective data culture within the organisations that we fund, and the adoption of appropriate new technologies across all aspects of their businesses. We know that the cultural sector has yet to fully utilise the power of data to understand its audiences and the impact of its work. We will build partnerships with the technology sector and with further and higher education to help drive improvement in this area.

Photo by ILUVLIVE Photo © Abigail Shii
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Let's create the next big thing

Coloured squares around text which says 'Environmental responsibility'

Environmental Responsibility

The climate crisis and environmental degradation will be the most significant challenge facing all of us over the next decade and beyond. The cultural sector has already taken major steps to reduce its carbon footprint, partly as a result of a range of initiatives supported by the Arts Council. Alongside this, more and more artists and organisations are engaging with the subjects of climate, biodiversity, waste and energy in the work they create, programme and support. Research using natural history collections, meanwhile, helps people better understand these issues and suggests ways in which policy and behaviour might be adapted to address them. This creative and scientific dialogue is shaping a cultural response to the climate crisis that provides new insights and reflects the demands of audiences.

Over the next 10 years, we will expect the cultural organisations we support to redouble their commitment to environmental responsibility. We will ask them to make plans to reduce their impact, and to measure, understand and report on their progress in doing so. We want cultural organisations to act as leaders within their communities in terms of taking an environmentally responsible approach to running businesses and buildings: by lowering carbon emissions, increasing levels of recycling, cutting their use of plastic and reducing water consumption. We also expect them to promote the need for environmental responsibility in the communities in which they work, through their partnerships and with their audiences. They should be aware of the cultural sector’s role in helping to lead change, and they should aim to be innovative and responsive in the choices they make.

Coloured squares around text which says 'Inclusivity & Relevance'

Inclusivity & Relevance

In 2011 Arts Council England launched the Creative Case for Diversity. In the years since, it has helped focus attention on the decisions that cultural organisations make about the work that they produce, present and collect. It has led to a wider recognition that choices about which artists to commission, what repertoires to stage, which exhibitions to mount and which performers to employ play an important part in representing the diversity of this country and ensuring that public money is invested to the benefit of all communities.

The Creative Case for Diversity has deepened the quality of cultural provision in this country, giving voice to talented creative practitioners who have too often been overlooked. It is now time to build on this work and address the persistent and widespread lack of diversity and inclusivity in cultural organisations’ leadership, governance, workforce and audience. This will promote equality and fairness, as well as ensuring that cultural organisations are more effective businesses.

The 2010 Equality Act requires Arts Council England to exercise its Public Sector Equality Duty to consider and advance equality in our investment and policy making. In future, we will ask organisations who receive regular investment from us to agree targets for how their governance, leadership, employees, participants, audiences and the work they make will reflect the communities in which they work. These targets will cover both protected characteristics (including disability, sex, and race) and socio-economic background.

We also expect the organisations we support to change in other ways. We want them to build closer connections with their communities, particularly those that they are currently underserving. We want them to mean more, to more people: to strengthen their relevance to the communities, partners and practitioners with whom they work. We will therefore ask them to demonstrate how they are listening to the voices of the public, including children and young people, artists, and creative practitioners, as well as the partners they will need to work with to deliver our three Outcomes. We will also ask them to tell us how they are reflecting what they hear in the planning of their work.

In future, we will judge organisations for the way in which they reflect and build a relationship with their communities, as well as for the quality and ambition of their work.

Applying the Investment Principles

Two people examine a multicoloured light sculpture in a gallery space.

Applying the Investment Principles

Find out more about our Investment Principles, watch the animation exploring them in more detail, and download resources to support you in adopting them.