Taking risks is one of the most important parts of any business. Risk means potential loss, but also possible growth. Either way it means change and keeps us away from stagnation.

It’s especially relevant with Arts and Heritage sectors, where commercial moves around receiving contracts, production, touring and sales are underpinned by support in kind, fundraising and donorship. The business principles of art in the UK rely on every level of arts organisations – from startup to NPO – establishing a co-mutual relationship of support and competition for commercial pipelines from DCMS guidelines (department of Culture Media and Support). This is where funding comes in, and the key question is raised. What counts as business as usual in national funding?

Background:

  I was lucky to work in the arts and heritage sector. It gave me confidence through people 10 years ahead of me giving their time, experience and most importantly, taking that risk. The sector in the United Kingdom plays a crucial role in the cultural and economic landscape, contributing significantly to the economy, education, and community well-being. But being so highly dependent on public and private funding makes it a dangerous world to work in. Job stability and consistent growth are sacrificed, and as much as there is to celebrate in these industries, the slow decline over the last 10 years coupled with the harshest funding cuts we’ve ever seen to the industry is now a serious problem.

Funding Art:

Public funding, mostly through places like Arts Council England, BFI, Creative Scotland, Cymru Artistic and other regional entities are the lifeline of arts organisations. These funds support a range of activities from theatre productions, museums, and galleries to grassroots community projects. Funding defines the scope and scale of most theatres, museums, cultural agencies and community arts groups that you know – aside from the big budget, big-investment minded commercial London arms of the sector.

This means that these strategic funding decisions are directly correlating with employment opportunities in the UK. A report by the Center for Economics and Business Research found that the arts and culture industry contributes more than £10 billion a year to the UK economy and supports more than 360,000 jobs. Bear in mind that this isn’t just actors, pop stars and your favourite TV leading actors but it’s every single behind the scenes role that represents a career for hundreds and thousands of people. It represents the daily working lives of each one of them.

Private funding, including donations, sponsorship, and grants from foundations, plays an equally (if not more) vital role. But relying on private funding is volatile, subject to economic conditions and ultimately donor preferences – you’re potentially leaving the future of an organisation up to someone completely unconnected to your organisation ‘changing their mind’. This leads to uncertain employment prospects for those working in the sector, projects and opportunities being sliced with devastating consequences.

Navigating the Challenge:

Funding cuts and stagnation always brings us to one conclusion – a reduction in the number of jobs, due to organisations downsizing and scaling back their activities. I remember once having my own project I had been set up to lead taken away and having it described as ‘trimming the fat’.

Not exactly the best day in the office I’ve ever had.

An overused but ever-present example was famously during the COVID-19 pandemic, where a significant reduction in revenue and funding led to widespread job losses across the sector. A survey by the Creative Industries Federation in 2020 reported that 1 in 5 jobs in the UK’s creative industries were at risk due to the financial impact of the pandemic, with the arts, culture, and heritage sectors being particularly vulnerable. More importantly, it leaves people vulnerable. People who’ve sacrificed far more stable careers and corporate lineage in favour of trying to pursue what they’re really passionate about.

This shouldn’t be something that’s punished, and doesn’t need to be. Look what happens when you do the opposite.

Why should I care?

 Increased funding leads to job creation and retention, as well as opportunities for sustainable professional development. In 2021, the UK government announced a £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help arts organisations survive the pandemic. This funding was pivotal in saving thousands of jobs and enabling many organisations to continue operating. But even this was only a step in the right direction – while several critics argued that more sustainable, long-term funding solutions are needed, as reliance on emergency funds is not a viable strategy.

Grass Roots and Communities:

  Smaller organisations, particularly those representing underrepresented communities, struggle to access funding due to harshly competitive application processes and bias towards established institutions. It limits the diversity of opportunities, affecting both job availability and inclusivity, but also makes otherwise bold startups and community led groups become ‘tame’. They have to be as ‘reliable’ and ‘familiar’ as possible to blend into a stale cultural prerogative, and so are stifled before they’ve even had the chance to express their voice.

  Having a diverse cultural landscape producing a range of content outside of ‘safe’ limits will always have an economic boost. Aside from the culturally vital aspect of inclusivity and diversity in the country, having a range of art and culture that can be produced and toured within regional areas brings both productivity and profit in commercial terms. It doesn’t mean everything will be a success, but what business ever has a 100% success rate? What it means is a diversification of our national portfolio, and a serious, long term injection of talented professionals.

  Young people are a great example of a  category of workers who face significant barriers when entering the arts sector (here defined as anyone aged 18 – 25). Many roles, especially entry-level positions, are poorly paid, precarious, or simply unpaid. Internships make a good dent in the issue, but also make it tougher for young people without financial support to gain experience. Once again limiting diversity and accessibility in the arts – and one thing none of us should want is to silo who is working in the industry, else we’ll end up sliding right back into the past.

  There are opportunities to innovate – especially through digital tools. Crowdfunding, digital platforms, and social enterprises are emerging as alternative funding models that can support employment in the arts.

Examples:

Great examples include third sector cultural startups like South Wales’ Starline who work to support disadvantaged young people through arts led interventions. Despite losing out on all funding they applied for in 2022, they committed to local supporters and direct action in the communities they serve to drum up support, gather local stakeholders and establish an incredibly successful crowdfunding campaign over the course of the 2023-24 financial year- partly helped by an imaginative social media campaign created by – you guessed it – someone actually being paid a wage.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not as easy as just pulling another FTE wage out of your budget, and more often than not smaller organisations have their hands tied as much as the people applying for jobs to work with them. But these approaches can offer more flexible and resilient funding streams based on direct support from stakeholders that are actually relevant to the business. Though they won’t entirely replace the need for public and institutional support, and don’t necessarily cover expansion in the future, it does offer a sustainable platform from which growth can be achieved. Now more than ever, they potentially represent the way forward for countless arts and cultural organisations across the country.

Verdict?

Funding and diversity are critical. But these things come from risk. To ensure a thriving arts sector, there is a need for more consistent and equitable funding models that support a diverse range of organisations and practitioners. Once more, this all comes from mid-scale, subsidised and leveled structures. You want good theatre developed through experience? Then build the ladders for people to climb – and so they don’t have to do it by taking out a mortgage and/or credit cards.

Every other industry has its own volatility. Some manage to mitigate these better than others e.g. the introduction of renewable energy purchase agreements in energy sectors to help bring down the average consumer cost of electricity and use simultaneously use greener energy provision. A risky strategy but one that yields tangible consumer benefit. Maybe what arts and culture needs to do is to take a leaf out of the startups and community driven cultural organisations, and learn a little more from the commercial drives of other sectors in the UK. Taking risk is (you’ve guessed it) – risky. But it sets your organisation in a direction, which is more important now than ever. The organisations which sink are the stagnant ones.

  It’s time to do away with the idea that the arts is for those somehow ‘chasing a dream’. What we have is a sector full of talented and imaginative professionals who have all shown their dedication by not veering off to the myriad of industries that are simply easier to exist in. So creating any kind of structure through which professionals can exist is, now more than ever, essential.

  These professionals are an amazing workforce, and through using digital tools, intelligent processes, diverse policies and more deliberately apportioned funding, we might actually start to see sustainable growth on a national level to make sure that one of the UK’s most vital industries doesn’t collapse under its own indecision.

References

  1. Centre for Economics and Business Research. (2019). Contribution of the arts and culture industry to the UK economy.
  2. Creative Industries Federation. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on jobs in the creative industries.
  3. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. (2021). Culture Recovery Fund: Details of funds awarded and impact.