Grants & Funding News

Lakes Alive, a major programme of outdoor arts events in Cumbria, is calling on local people and visitors to help it win a poll to find the National Lottery's Best Arts Project.

Lakes Alive, a major programme of outdoor arts events in Cumbria, is calling on local people and visitors to help it win a poll to find the National Lottery's Best Arts Project.

Lakes Alive is one of 10 projects that has been selected by an independent judging panel to go through to the semi finals of the National Lottery Awards 2010 and to compete for the title of Best Arts Project. 

Now in its second year, Lakes Alive stages a wide variety of world class events across the county bringing the towns, villages and spectacular landscapes of Cumbria alive. Taking people out of the ordinary, offering awe-inspiring and memorable experiences, Lakes Alive explores play and the possibilities of space and the imagination. Featuring the best international artists, the programme animates public spaces in Cumbria across spring and summer each year, culminating with Mintfest, its flagship street-arts festival. 

Lakes Alive is Cumbria's unique contribution to the Legacy Trust UK programme which was set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Legacy Trust UK funding is provided through an endowment from the Big Lottery Fund, the Department for Culture Media and Sport and Arts Council England. 

Over 75,000 people attended the Lakes Alive events in 2009 and academics from Manchester University have calculated that they generated £3 million of extra spending in the county. 

Julie Tait from Kendal Arts International, which runs Lakes Alive along with Manchester International Arts, says: 'We are all delighted that we have got through to the semi finals of this year's national Lottery Awards. It's recognition of the quality and popularity of the Lakes Alive events and also the social and economic benefits that they bring to the area.

'We hope that as many people as possible who have seen one of our events will give us their support in this competition. If Lakes Alive makes it to the final stage we will appear with the other finalists on the lottery programme on BBC1, which would obviously be great publicity not just for the events but for the whole of Cumbria.'

The winner will be decided by two rounds of public voting. The first round, which takes place between 1 June and 18 June, will whittle down the semi finalists to three projects. The next round, between 26 July and 13 August, will decide the winner. 

Kendal Arts International are asking all their supporters to vote for them by visiting www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards or calling 0844 686 8790. The winning project will receive a £2,000 prize and appear on a special lottery show on BBC1.

For more information on the Lakes Alive programme visit www.lakesalive.org.

The Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, which is supported by a National Lottery award of £153,818 from our Grants for the arts scheme, has just been presented with the Arab British Culture & Society Award 2010. This national award, an initiative of the Arab British Centre, adds further prestige to an event which is growing in stature and international recognition. This year's festival will take place between 2-11 July at venues across the city of Liverpool.

The Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, which is supported by a National Lottery award of £153,818 from our Grants for the arts scheme, has just been presented with the Arab British Culture & Society Award 2010. This national award, an initiative of the Arab British Centre, adds further prestige to an event which is growing in stature and international recognition. This year's festival will take place between 2-11 July at venues across the city of Liverpool.

The Arab British Culture & Society Award of £5,000 is presented annually to an individual or organisation which, in the opinion of the judges, has made an outstanding contribution to the British public's knowledge and understanding of the life, society and culture of the Arab people.

The judges unanimously chose Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, who beat nine other shortlisted candidates, in recognition of the wide range of events and activities from throughout the Arab world which it organises during its annual festival, as well as the large and growing audiences it attracts.

Through its arts and cultural programme held in a variety of Liverpool venues, and its outreach work in schools and other centres, it has introduced Arab culture to many thousands of adults and children, and played an important role in increasing appreciation of Arab life and culture and combating prejudice.

Last year's Arabic Weekender event, presented by Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, was enjoyed by over 25,000 people and this year's 10 day event promises a further vibrant taste of Arabic music, dance, literature, film, food and culture, for all the family.

Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival Manager, Ngozi Ikoku, said: 'The first Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival took place in 2002 and thanks to our strong partners and the support of the Arabic community it has outgrown all our expectations. We are extremely honoured to be recognised with this award and for the encouragement it gives to our attempt to bring together a wide variety of people to share and learn about Arabic culture. The award will only strengthen our resolve to ensure that we continue to deliver a significant national and independent festival which resonates within the city and far beyond.'

Taher Qassim MBE, Chair of Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, said: 'I am immensely proud that the diversity and richness of Arabic culture is being seen to flourish in Liverpool. It is a testimony both to the enterprise of the Arab community within the city and the energy of the city as a whole that this festival continues to grow year after year into the most vibrant celebration of Arab culture in the UK if not Europe. We warmly invite you to come along this July, to enjoy and take part in the festivities from across the Arab World and its diaspora.'

Details of this year's festival are available from www.arabicartsfestival.co.uk.

Supported by a £100,000 National Lottery award from our Grants for the arts scheme, Tatton Park stages its second biennial of contemporary art from May to September 2010. The biennial provides a laboratory for creative experiment and exchange, with new works commissioned for the Deer Park, Mansion and Formal Gardens.

Supported by a £100,000 National Lottery award from our Grants for the arts scheme, Tatton Park stages its second biennial of contemporary art from May to September 2010. The biennial provides a laboratory for creative experiment and exchange, with new works commissioned for the Deer Park, Mansion and Formal Gardens.

Tatton Park has commissioned a series of emerging and mid-career artists and writers to produce works that examine the making of identity through landscape and architecture. Twenty-one artists are contributing to the life of the biennial, with commissions considering ideas about what links people to place, notions of history and place-making and collective visions for the future.

The biennial, which runs until 26 September, is curated by Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan, Parabola and supported by a host of partners including A Foundation, Cornerhouse, Manchester Art Gallery and RSA Arts & Ecology.

The curators Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan said: 'The biennial positions itself as a creative laboratory that embraces the unknown, commissioning new works from a range of innovative artists and writers to develop considered responses to issues surrounding identity, landscape and sustainability.' 

Tatton Park is a listed site, owned by the National Trust and managed by Cheshire East Council. Framing Identity responds to the estate as a living and evolving subject rather than as an historical keepsake.

For further information visit www.tattonparkbiennial.org

With the help of Galapagos Conservation Trust and an Arts Council England Grants for the arts award of more than £30,000, two Brighton-based artists have recently returned from a study of live volcanoes on the Galapagos Islands.

The artists are Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt of Semiconductor who will use what they learned and the materials they gathered on the islands to inform what is sure to be a fascinating new body of work Worlds in the making.

Iceland's recent volcanic eruption has served as a sharp reminder to all of us of the power of the natural environment and the impact it can have on our lives.

Much of what we accept as scientific fact about the natural world has been inherited from the father of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin, and his study of the Galapagos Islands.

With the help of Galapagos Conservation Trust and an Arts Council England Grants for the arts award of more than £30,000, two Brighton-based artists have recently returned from a study of live volcanoes on the Galapagos Islands.

The artists are Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt of Semiconductor who will use what they learned and the materials they gathered on the islands to inform what is sure to be a fascinating new body of work Worlds in the making.

Semiconductor create moving image works that reveal the physical world in flux, driven by a fascination with how we, as humans, understand the world through science. So the opportunity to study scientists at work in a unique natural environment proved to be an unmissable and exhilarating experience.

During January and February 2010, Ruth and Joe travelled to the islands to take part in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Galapagos Artist Residency, which included spending three weeks on the Galapagos Islands, seven days at the Charles Darwin Foundation on Santa Cruz Island and a trip to mainland Ecuador.  

'We wanted to visit the volcanically produced Galapagos Islands to provide us with a rich palette for a new body of work exploring volcanoes,' Ruth explains.

The initial stage in the trip involved an eight day boat trip touring the islands, chaperoned by a naturalist guide who explained what they were seeing in terms of the natural history and politics of the islands.

'It turned out to be quite literally an out of this world experience,' says Ruth.

'The laws of nature appeared to be different. We had time travelled to an era when animals had no fear of humans and the matter and processes that had gone into the initial forming of land dominated the scene. It suggested a formidable and alien world.'

The next part of their expedition was a physically gruelling week on Isabela Island, the largest in the Galapagos archipelago. Here, Ruth and Joe trekked on horseback, bike and on foot to document through image and sound some of its six volcanoes and lava strewn environments.

It was their time on mainland Ecuador however that allowed them their most 'explosive' filming conditions while staying at the foot of the Tungurahua volcano.

'Tungurahua was not erupting when we initially left for Ecuador so it was a twist of fate that we coincided with this exciting episode in its history,' Joe tells us.

'We spent about two weeks in Banos, returning a couple of times drawn in by the eruptions. It was such a physical experience. As the volcano violently exploded rocks and lava from its crater, a sonic wave would hit you followed closely by the most thunderous blast.

'It was so exhilarating that we spent two sleepless nights of volcano watching and filming.'

Since returning from their adventures, Ruth and Joe have been reflecting on their experiences and making plans to start bringing together their ideas and material to make their new moving image work. We wondered whether they have had any early thoughts about how this new body of work might take shape.

'We are creating a multi-screen installation work that is much more ambitious in length and scale than anything we have done before,' Ruth tells us.

'The work looks at how we make sense of the physical world; by exploring the volcanic mechanisms that create it and the processes we develop to understand it.'

To create the work, Ruth and Joe will be using the film footage they collected during their trip, applying their own custom animation techniques and using processes that they have learned from the volcanologists they met.

'We're interested in how we apply meaning to matter,' Ruth continues, 'and how these relate to our actual experiences of the perceivable world.'

Semiconductor's adventures in science and art do not stop there. As a result of their Galapagos residency, they have been awarded a Smithsonian Artists Fellowship.

Ruth explains: 'This is really exciting for us because it offers us an opportunity to continue to research we've been doing on the Galapagos Islands. We'll be spending three months in the mineral sciences department of the Smithsonian Natural History in Washington DC this August.'

Meanwhile, as opportunities to exhibit the new work Worlds in the making are explored teaser excerpts will be available to view at www.semiconductorfilms.com

You can also hear Ruth and Joe from Semiconductor talk about their work at Lighthouse's Monthly Talks Programme in July, August and September in Brighton.  

It's certainly been an eventful two months since our new structure came into being in April 2010. The new team in the south east is bedding in and we are not far from a full complement of staff, which is great.  

Here Sally Abbott, Regional Director, reflects on how the recent DCMS budget cut announcement means we need to be even more creative, entrepreneurial and connected.

It's certainly been an eventful two months since our new structure came into being in April 2010. The new team in the south east is bedding in and we are not far from a full complement of staff, which is great.

Here Sally Abbott, Regional Director, reflects on how the recent DCMS budget cut announcement means we need to be even more creative, entrepreneurial and connected.

As our new team beds in, our 10-year strategic framework Achieving great art for everyone begins to emerge and a budget appears on the horizon, it's fair to say that these are changing times.

As our Chair Dame Liz Forgan said in her statement following the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) announcement last month: 'The task now is for us to do everything in our power to maintain the strength and achievements of the arts sector and minimise the impact of those cuts on the organisations we fund.'

'Our priority is to do our best to protect art and artists, and to make sure that we make and communicate our decisions as quickly as possible.'

We have a real window of opportunity to make an even stronger case for sustained arts investment in advance of the forthcoming budget on 22 June. We all have an essential role to play in championing why the arts matter. It is vital that as Jeremy Hunt, the new Culture Secretary, is making the case to the new Government for sustained arts investment, each and every one of us plays our part in supporting that case.

Thanks to 15 years of sustained support, the arts are thriving. That is why the news that the DCMS budget is to be cut by 4.1% in the current financial year was very disappointing. Arts Council England has been asked to manage a 4 per cent cut.

We must drive home the argument that the arts present fantastic value for money. The arts budget is tiny; the return on that investment is huge. In fact, for less than 17p a week per person we have a cultural life in this country that is the envy of the world.

I am a firm believer in the saying that the key to success lies in the ability to adapt. And in my mind, there's never been a greater need for all of us in the arts sector to be open to change.

Jeremy Hunt MP, whose constituency lies in the heart of the south east, is no stranger to the artistic strengths of the region. We, and the artists and arts organisations in the region, have developed a strong relationship with Jeremy over the last couple of years and he is a passionate advocate for the arts. There's no doubt however that Jeremy takes up the post at a time of achievement and challenge for the arts.

The DCMS statement refers to the Arts Council's historic reserves which - in common with museums and other DCMS bodies - the Department has prevented us from accessing to date. We are now in discussion with the DCMS about the possibility of using these funds to mitigate against the reductions to our budget. This move would need to be approved by our National Council and the Charity Commission and would have to be in the best interests of the arts.

Following our restructure, the Arts Council has already reduced its operating costs this year by £6.5 million (Lottery and Grant in Aid). Our operating costs are currently 6.6 per cent of overall spend - of which 3 per cent is spent on management and administration. The remainder is spent on direct support to frontline delivery. This latest reduction is in addition to the £4 million already cut from the Arts Council's government funding this year so we have suffered cuts of £23 million this year, or 5 per cent.  

We now have a significant job to do to identify these savings.

Only £23 million of our overall Grant-in-Aid budget goes on running costs so the vast bulk of our income goes straight to the arts. It would therefore be impossible to meet a cut of this size from running costs alone.

We will keep you posted on events as they unfold. The new team are finding their feet and are now on hand to ensure your work continues to be a success over the coming months.

Contemporary visual art fans will be heading for the coast this summer as  international artists Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley display their work in Margate and Bexhill.

Contemporary visual art fans will be heading for the coast this summer as international artists Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley display their work in Margate and Bexhill.

In Margate, Emin's latest work was commissioned by Arts Council England regularly funded organisation, Turner Contemporary, with support from Thanet District Council.

The piece, a bright pink neon sign emblazoned with the words I Never Stopped Loving You, hangs above the entrance to Droit House on Stone Pier. Hundreds turned up on 30 April to see it unveiled.

Emin is most famous for her works My Bed and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963 -1995, and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999.

The artist has dubbed this latest neon piece a love letter to Margate, her former childhood home, which has suffered decades of decay but is now the focus of urban regeneration.

Emin says: 'This neon is for everyone who knows that Margate is a truly beautiful place. It's a shame that the Golden Mile has lost its lighted crowning glory. Margate needs neon to bring it back to its former self.'

Victoria Pomery, Director of Turner Contemporary, says of the commission:  'We were delighted when Tracey Emin agreed to work with us on a new commission for the façade of Droit House.

'It has taken a long time to realise the neon work but it looks fantastic and it projects a truly beautiful sentiment that can be shared by everyone. I am sure that it will soon become an iconic part of the Margate seafront, enjoyed by local residents as well as crowds of summer visitors.

'For Turner Contemporary the unveiling of I Never Stopped Loving You also marked the start of a countdown to the opening of our new gallery next year, and we are all very excited that Tracey has agreed to work with us on an exhibition in autumn 2011.'

Meanwhile in Bexhill, Antony Gormley's life-sized iron body casts installation, Critical Mass, is currently on display on the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion until August 2010. This is the first time the entire 60-piece collection has been exhibited in the UK since 2001.

Gormley says the Modernist building and its seaside landscape are the perfect complement to his 1995 work.

He says: 'It is great to have a chance to test this piece of sculpture against the clarity of Mendelsohn and Chemayeff's English masterpiece. I am excited to see these dark forms in the elements against the sea and in direct light. It will be like a sky burial. How these masses act in space is very important. The challenge is to make the distance intimate, internal.'

For further information visit www.turnercontemporary.org and www.dlwp.com

Three south east Deaf and disabled artists have been awarded £55,000 to take their work into the public realm.

Three south east Deaf and disabled artists have been awarded £55,000 to take their work into the public realm.

Sarah Scott, Lorna Giezot, and Zoe Partington-Sollinger were chosen for the Go Public art commissions by two Arts Council England regularly funded organisations, arts agencies Dada-South and Artpoint.  

Go Public, launched in 2009, is a two-year initiative that aims to raise the profile of the unique and inspiring contribution Deaf and disabled artists make to contemporary society.

The initiative is part of Accentuate, a transformational programme of 15 projects that seeks to change perceptions and offer a wide range of opportunities across the south east to showcase the talents of disabled people.

Accentuate is funded by Legacy Trust UK, SEEDA and regional cultural agencies, including Arts Council England.

All of the chosen artists will exhibit their commissions across the south east, ahead of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The winning commissions include plans for a project that creatively documents the impact of yoga on disabled participants; a scientifically mapped and transmitted journey through urban space; and a tactile glowing resin door sculpture.

The commissions present an opportunity for artists to showcase their work in new and innovative ways, sometimes for the first time.

For multimedia visual artist and designer Lorna Giezot, Go Public will support her to create her first large-scale public work.

Lorna says her resin doorway represents the unknown, but also the possible: 'The ability to look through the sculpture to see what is on the other side breaks down that fear of the unknown associated with many metaphors, including disability and disabled people.'

Conceptual artist Zoe Partington-Sollinger, also an Arts Council England West Midlands Regional Council member, hopes that her Go Public project will influence urban planners to consider the needs of Deaf and disabled people.

Zoe said: 'My idea puts Deaf and disabled people at the centre of the creative process, and by capturing scientific data, informs that process in a useful and groundbreaking way.'

'We are delighted that these exceptional artists have been selected,' says Stevie Rice, Director of Dada-South, the development agency for Deaf and disabled artists in the south east.  'I have no doubt that the work will seek to engage and challenge audiences' perceptions and will give a much needed opportunity for disabled and Deaf artists to present their work in the public realm.'

‘Go Public has enabled Artpoint to further understand the needs of disabled artists in the south east,’ says Kevin Wilson, Director of Artpoint, the public art agency for the south east. ‘It continues to be a very rewarding process to support disabled artists in all stages of their development.’

In addition to the three large awards, Greek installation artist Vicky Vergou also won a smaller research and development award.

Applications for the Go Public public art commissions were accepted from emerging and established artists living or working in the south east. Applicants then underwent a rigorous and competitive commissioning process.

Go Public offers further opportunities for disabled and Deaf artists this year including workshops on the development and delivery of public realm initiatives.

For further information about Go Public or Accentuate, see their website http://www.accentuate-se.org/go-public