‘Ladders for development’ argues that the visual arts sector should pull together and support small visual arts organisations cut by Arts Council England because they “punch above their weight” and provide vital development of future artists. Six months on, Dany Louise interviews these arts organisations again, to find out how they’ve fared and what their futures hold.
The key finding of this study reveals that shockingly few individual artists apply for funding in their own right, and even fewer are successful. What this means is 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.
New evidence exposing, quantifying and discussing the likely impact on the visual arts of Arts Council England’s decisions on fifteen previously Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) visual arts organisations unsuccessful in their NPO application. It shows that a disproportionate number of artists’ membership and development agencies and practice-based organisations lost core funding, despite ACE’s aim of creating a balanced national portfolio and makes recommendations for sustaining their work as part of a strengthened arts ecology.
There are now over 200 contemporary art biennials across the globe, compared with four or five or twenty years ago.
Rather than asking what a biennial represents, it may be worthwhile to shift the emphasis of the question and examine how it represents. That is: How is it experienced?
Artist’s jobs and opportunities 1989-2003
