I think I may have found a loophole in ACE funding. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll get anything – but I do now know it’s all about wording.
This took a fair bit of research plus an actual call to ACE instead of relying on email.
I also naively thought that perhaps exhibitors from Supermarket 2011 could offer an insight into their funding resources. Out of the 70 artists’ initiatives from 26 countries, 3 were from England, 1 from Ireland.
Over the weekend, I emailed 2 of the London ones who I thought were on a par with our groups, asking if they had received funding of any sorts.
OK – they may have been busy, away or forgot to look at their emails…. or maybe they are guarding their secrets closely. I won’t name and shame them, but needless to say – no response.
Arts Council funding….well, that’s a bit of an enigma. I’m looking at all of the alternatives for getting funding to take some of the group to Stockholm to hang the show.
The obvious thing would be start with AC funding. ( So I thought) rather than going straight in and filling in the multi page application form which asks for more or less the same answers in duplicate, I first filled in the basic eligibility check and passed, no problems.
Double checked the wording on the 4 page ‘Grants for the Arts – International activity’..and yes, we fit the bill in several areas. e.g. Link with Peers internationally…opportunities for artist and arts organisations from England to attend networking events… tick.
The document advises that we contact the enquiry team to get good advice and to save time. OK – I was in work, so it was easier for me to email.
The response I got was : Your project must be a self-contained, time limited activity with a definite start and end date that demonstrates a clear engagement for the English Public. It cannot be of a purely commercial nature or designed to gain financial profit.
OK – so I wrote back that perhaps I hadn’t explained myself very well, although it was classed as an ‘Arts Fair’, the work is not for sale – it is purely a networking activity and will hopefully raise the profile of a UK artist led group.
Got exactly the same response back, so they obviously didn’t read it.
So – are they saying that no UK artist can be funded by AC for an exhibition, as there is a very small possibility that the work will sell?
Hmmm… time to make some phone calls? Or should I give up now with them?
Today, we sent out details about ‘Supermarket’ to artists who we’ve either worked with before, or who’s work we like – asking if they would like to participate. This is going to be quite hard, as we can only realistically take the work of 15 artists to be part of the exhibition – any more would just be a visual overload.
I realise that this will upset artists who we’ve worked with in the past and who haven’t been invited. This was a difficult choice and it was by no means a judgement on the quality of work. It was simply ‘what will fit’.
The brief was ‘Bring a Box’ and this can be interpreted in any way. The artists have three weeks to send something to us if they want to be considered.
It feels so weird to be sitting at the other end of the table!
The last few days, with the enormous help from Bruce at Basement Arts projects Leeds, I have spent the bulk of my time trying to work out a plan of action. Last Friday, I received an email from the organisers of the Supermarket art fair in Stockholm, saying that they had accepted my application. This is a combined application between the group I run ( SCI) and the Leeds group.
Why the joint application? Two main reasons… Our application stood out from the others ( a criteria on the application form!) We span two cities and have a huge bank of artists to choose from.
The other major one – funding. In theory, the more minds working on this, the more likely we are to come up with a solution. ( in theory – yes)
We obviously can’t take all of the artists in the groups, so the hard part now is deciding who’s work would best fit the brief……
