ACE announce emergency funding package!
24 March 2020 by Ed
Arts Council England (ACE), will offer individuals and organisations working in the cultural sector new financial support during this crisis, totalling £160 million. These emergency funding streams will be open to applications very soon.
Arts Council England (ACE), announce emergency funding package - £160m Coronavirus support for cultural sector
ACE will offer individuals and organisations working in the cultural sector new financial support during this crisis, totalling £160 million. They will re-purpose investment strands to be able to offer this support. These emergency funding streams will be open to applications very soon.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
ACE will publish guidance for applicants including the detailed timetable for this fund on 30 March. Potential applicants will need to register on the Grantium application portal by Friday 3 April. There will be support for people to do this.
The support includes:
- £90 million will be available for for National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs)
- £50 million will be available for organisations outside of the National Portfolio
- £20 million will be available to creative practitioners and cultural workers
Funding for National Portfolio Organisations
ACE will be making £90 million available to NPOs. They hope organisations will use this funding to reboot their creative work, but we also understand it may be required to alleviate financial pressures on NPOs. More information
Funding for organisations outside of the National Portfolio
£50 million will be made available to organisations that are not in receipt of regular funding from the Arts Council. Organisations who have applied to National Lottery Project Grants are welcome to apply for this support. More information
Funding for individuals
ACE to support artists, creative practitioners and freelancers as best we can in this crisis. We're making £20 million of financial support available to individuals, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months. More information
"We have worked as quickly as we can to produce this emergency response package. The speed was necessitated by the evidence we have heard from the sector of the immediate financial impact on organisations and individuals. We want to be transparent about how we have made these decisions."
The package was designed last week by a group of senior staff within the Arts Council. It was informed by evidence collected from all parts of the sector since we became aware of the Covid-19 risk. The proposals they developed were tested with an external reference group made up off a cross-section of the publicly funded cultural sector (creative practitioners, non-NPO, NPOs, and local authorities). The Arts Council’s Executive Board made a recommendation to National Council on Friday 20 March. Since then Arts Council staff have continued to work on design and implementation of the proposals.
The Arts Council’s diversity team is reviewing the equality impact of the response package and feeding into the detailed work on the criteria, guidance and decision making process.
Background information
This funding has come from reallocation of National Lottery Project Grants, Developing Your Creative Practice and our Development Funds for the 2020-21 period, and uses up almost all of our reserves.
Sir Nicholas Serota - Chair, Arts Council England