Funding and Funding Committees

Funding in the art world is extremely important and vital to a lot of artists throughout their career as it supplies them with the opportunity to create free of the financial burden. The main aim of various funding committees is to supply artists with the money necessary to create art which can benefit the benefit everyone both in the art community and the public. To do this an Artist first applies with a project proposal, if the application is successful and deemed worthy of funding they are given a grant. They are then expected to create the art in return, using the money to buy materials or to hire people necessary for the works production. The grants range greatly in price, anywhere from and few hundred pounds all the way up to £600,000 depending on the funder and project (gov.co.uk 2017). Both artists and the art community greatly benefit from funding committees since it helps aspiring artists grow and develop and create art which would have otherwise been impossible without the budget. This in turn helps the art market overtime since it helps create successful artist who are the foundations of the British art market.

Social Enterprise is also an area of funding that can be given, its purpose is slightly different to normal funding since it’s there to help people give back into the communities rather than just create a piece of art work. To do this they fund projects heavily linked to teaching people and spreading information, whether that’s setting up a small business to teach children about art or technology classes for the elderly, either way people and learning are at the heart of Social Enterprise Funding and there purposes to help communities (the-sse.org 2017).

The Art Council is the main funding organisation in the UK and are a base of many other smaller funders. They are a government funded body and have over £270 million a year to fund artists across the country, their awards can range anywhere from £1000 to £100,000 depending on the individual project. They fund artistic projects which value and promote culture with an emphasis on benefiting communities, it is also a financial investment to encourage  growth in the British art market and create a good investment for the further to benefit everybody (artcouncil.org 2017). Another large funder is the Arts Impact Fund; they award repayable funding to organisations. Unlike the Art Council to get funding from the AIF you have to have an organisation which is a registered charity and give a proposal which will greatly benefit communities and the public, such as restoring a building or running art classes.  Because of this the funding available is much greater, awarding from £150,000 to £600,000 for a project. They also have a range of private and public funders, including: The Arts Council, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Nesta and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, with additional funding from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (artsimpactfund.org 2017). The Paul Hamlyn Foundation is also a great place to go for funding, since they themselves do not fund but supply directly for smaller independents funders which often have competitive awards. This might be a better option if ones looking for a smaller fund since the independent funders range from £100 up to £40,000 for the largest fund (fundingforartists.org.uk 2017) which might provide a better alternative.

Though before you can apply for any of the funding there are things that need to be done or prepared for, mainly a project proposal. This includes planning out the project, from expenses to timelines. The main areas a proposal should tackle are the main idea and projection of the project, who it will benefit, how much it should cost, and how long it will take. This is all so funders can get an idea of what the project really is and how it can impact the community, as well as giving an outlines for the money needed to fund it and the time it will take to create. It is also important to prepare for funding by looking for professional advice and consider other funding possibilities before making any moves, as different funders have different clauses to agreements, especially if it’s a private funder (thecreativeindustries.co.uk 2017). These preparations are a vital part of funding and need to be taken when funding is taken on.

[Leila Houston 2017]

A recent example of a locally funded project is that of Leila Houston, a visual artist based in Leicester who had the six month project  ‘Vulnerability in Austerity Today’ funded by the National Lottery through the Grants for the Art Scheme. She was supported by £15,339 on the project which came to finish this August. The project focuses on local resident’s views, feelings and voices which were captured on film and then paired with work from sound artists and musicians. These will then be shown alongside a final installation at City Festival along with sculptures and artworks also made during the project (artcouncil.org 2017). Though this project is unlike my own work it is a great example of how an exhibition can give back to the local communities in the way it gives locals a voice through the exhibition which gives it a slight social enterprise to the project.

After researching funding and the different options available I can’t help but find it obsolete to me as the work I make often requires very little money to create since I already have the supply’s I need most of the time, and the new supply’s I need are often such an small amount of money it wouldn’t fit into even the smallest funds. However in the future I might be taking projects which require new or expensive equipment, such as new lens or new digital software and hardware so it might be useful in the foreseeable future and something to always keep my mind open on.