Arts Council England has shelved its controversial plan to stop producers from applying for new funding before their current project is over after it was dubbed “the worst idea in the world”.
Figures from the sector told the Guardian that the significant change to the way artists and companies access grants would have plunged organisations into “crisis” if they were enacted. Many of them warned that their firms might fold because they would not have been able to adapt.
Under the proposals, any organisation that had a National Lottery Project Grant (NLPG) would need to wait until that project was completed before being able to apply for a new one. Another change would have limited applications to two a year.
Arts Council England (ACE) confirmed that the changes, which were due to start on 1 April, have been axed after “new feedback” and “concerns” were raised by people in the sector. Now changes could happen in September after a consultation.
The knock-on effect for production companies and other artists would have been huge, as many start applications for new grants while still working on other projects in order to keep working rather than pause to wait for more funding.
Producers said that the plan was “the worst idea in the world”, and would “make an unstable situation much worse” while forcing companies to “go dormant between productions”.
“They’re not considering the long-term health of the sector,” said one producer, who asked to remain anonymous. “The arts council can’t cope with the strain it’s under and is pushing it on to a sector that is already in crisis.”
ACE told the Guardian that it expected applicants to request £60m more than in the 2022-23 period because of the increased costs that producers and artists are facing. In 2022-23, ACE awarded almost £105m to just under 3,000 applicants.
NLPG is the funder’s rolling grant scheme, in which artists and companies can apply for three different types of funds: under £30,000, over £30,000 and over £100,000. Theatre and dance, museums and libraries are all covered by it.
But this process has been criticised for requiring “weeks of free labour, and a failure to secure it leads to a stark choice: empty diaries or further self-exploitation”.
ACE’s deputy chief executive, Laura Dyer, told the Stage that changes were required because the organisation was facing, “an ever-increasing level of demand” despite having “static income in terms of lottery [funding] for the past three years”.
Dyer also admitted that the proposals were “creating a degree of anxiety” and confirmed about 80 people had been consulted on the changes, which also included the Developing Your Creative Practice funding scheme.
“The challenge was how can ACE manage that demand in a way that means when people apply, they are not doing so with a low-level chance of getting a successful award, as it’s a lot of effort [to apply],” she said.
An ACE spokesperson said: “Collectively as a sector, we are grappling with the problem of growing demand for both these programmes … we acknowledge how frustrating it is for people to spend time on grant applications when success rates are falling.
“While we have to tackle the problem of demand, we think it’s right to take more time to talk to groups and individuals about how any changes can be as fair as possible to all applicants.”
