I have known people who offered grant writing services, though only
as a sideline...
I think a big issue is that many arts projects are by their nature
not easily fundable. Some do not fall easily into the funding
priorities of public bodies. Currently the Arts Council wants to fund
participatory projects. In the past this policy was different. In the
future it will be different again. Other projects are difficult to
describe as sexy one-liners that people can instantly latch onto. In
the past when I have served as a panel member the most successful
applicants were those who had either very "writerly" projects or who
were already established so funders knew what they were getting.
The Arts Council's long-gone Film and Video Broadcast dept once had a
method of peer reviewing you could opt for by which they looked at
your work and you gave them a notion of the sort of film you wanted
to make - "it's a bit like this and a little like that" (I am writing
purely from memory here). I do not know any body that now operates
this way.
Sometimes one feels one is only working on projects for the sake of
the funding. A healthier response is to decide what one feels is
really worthwhile and then argue the case to the funding bodies to
the utmost extent regardless of their "priorities".
Richard
From: Simon Biggs <[email protected]>
Date: 7 November 2011 16:49:17 GMT
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Arts funding: why so many artists don't
apply for the money.
Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<[email protected]>
The fact there is nobody out there offering their services to write
grants applications to the ACE suggests that there would be little
profit in doing so.
best
Simon
On 7 Nov 2011, at 16:17, dave miller wrote:
Or is there an opportunity here for "no Arts Council funding no fee"
services - following the idea of those insurance experts who
advertise
on afternoon TV and specialise in victim compensation? I'm being
cynical I suppose ...
dave
On 7 November 2011 14:55, Simon Biggs <[email protected]> wrote:
Most times I've been successful in acquiring Arts Council funds
it has been
through indirect means - somebody applying on my behalf, usually
through a
commissioning body (gallery, producer, festival, etc). The people
who hold
responsible positions in such organisations are expert grant
writers and
have a much better hit-rate than 2.5%. If that is the likely
success rate
then I'd tend to feel it is not worthwhile applying. You need a
better
likelihood than that. Even 10% is marginal. 20% is about when it
starts to
get worthwhile, in terms of the odds.
One of the main reasons I shifted from being a freelance artist
to working
in academia was due to issues around funding. During the 80's and
90's I'd
been lucky with ACE, British Council and other funders. But in
the late 90's
the new government changed the focus of arts funding, which
resulted in many
of the key funding avenues being closed down (like the new film
fund - which
happily funded new media projects with reasonably serious amounts
of money).
The writing was on the wall and the research councils started to
look like a
better bet, with relatively generous fellowships available, as
well as
medium to large project funds being available to creative
practice based
projects, especially if technology was involved (eg: six or seven
figures).
Things are more competitive now, with less money available and more
applicants than ever, but the hit-rate is still better than 10%
and, for
some funds, much better than that. Follow-on funding, for those
who have
already held research council funds, is better than 50/50.
State funding of the arts is in a dire situation now and it is
little
surprise that many feel it is pointless to apply - but if you
look at it
another way, somebody has to apply and you can't win it if you
aren't in
it. I'd recommend you develop a relationship with one or more
sponsoring
organisations that can work with you on developing a relationship
with the
funders. They need to know you a bit, understand what you are
doing and why
and to develop a trust based relationship. In hard times they are
even more
risk averse than normal.
best
Simon
On 7 Nov 2011, at 12:09, dave miller wrote:
I'm guilty of this - have never applied for funding. I always
assume I'd
never get any and with the scale of the cuts going on, I've more
or less
forgotten that funding even exists!
dave
On 7 November 2011 11:45, marc garrett
<[email protected]>
wrote:
Arts funding: why so many artists don't apply for the money.
Dany Louise introduces a report she wrote on arts funding that
reveals
some surprising statistics.
"The key finding is that surprisingly few individual artists
apply for
money in their own right and even fewer are successful. In
England, less
than 5% of artists apply in their own name every year and of
those, less
than 2.5% are successful. This means that there is little direct
funding
being given to artists to pursue and develop their own projects,
under
their own control: under 20% of available funding for the visual
arts in
England, 14% for Northern Ireland and around 18% for Scotland
and Wales
in 2009-2010."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-
professionals-blog/2011/nov/04/arts-funding-artists-dont-apply
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