Artists play a vital role in UK culture, but many, especially freelancers, those who are disabled and people from working-class and marginalised backgrounds, are finding it harder to access the funding and support they need. Arts Council England (ACE) is responsible for distributing public funding, but its processes are too complicated, unfair, and leave many struggling to survive. We call on ACE to make changes to better support all artists and ensure the arts stay diverse and accessible. The Problem: - Difficult and Confusing Applications: Freelancers and neurodivergent artists face big barriers when applying for funding. The application process is overly complicated, time-consuming, and difficult to navigate. Those who need help are often left unsupported, and many are discouraged by little or no feedback on rejections. - Lack of Fairness: Funding often goes to big institutions or curators, leaving individual artists without the support they need to continue their work. This puts working-class and disabled artists at a disadvantage. - Regional Inequality: Artists living outside London and major cities struggle to get the same funding opportunities, with most of the support going to urban areas

Make Arts Council England Fairer for All Artists

Shocking that we need this petition, at the moment it’s the arts for the wealthy!

Arts and Culture

Level 3 Change Maker

Over the years ACE has become increasingly bureaucratic and this prevents it from cutting through to those individuals who most need its support.

Retired

The last couple of years as seen a marked decline in grants going to jazz – some of you will have experienced filling in a tortuous 73 page document with Arts Council’s “Newspeak” and argot that is the intellectual equivalent of chewing rubber spaghetti and are wondering why you haven’t secured a grant. I had a letter published in the Stage that demystifies this particular topic There has been a 49% increase in the number of National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) since 2015.The use of Lottery money to fund NPOs started in the 2012/2015 Arts Council England funding round with £54m. In the 2015/2018 funding round £180m of Lottery funds was used. In the latest funding round this figure has risen to £326m. This reduces the funds available to individuals and organisations who do not have NPO status. These are some of the anomalies in the present state of affairs that only a root and branch review of the entire funding system should resolve and additional resources may be found. The arts funding system lives in the bounded rationality of the past with the result that in the last funding round 2023/24, 49% of the music allocation went to opera, 24% to classical music, 0.40% to folk music, 0.50% to brass bands and 2% to jazz

Media and Entertainment

Level 2 Change Maker

Provide support days and links to professionals who can help. Direct in what is required. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

Teacher / Supply Teacher

Level 1 Change Maker

The forms are impossible. It would help if there were relationship officers to help

ACE should have a more comprehensive programme of reaching out to, handicapped workers, freelance operators & other unregistered workers, making them more concious of legal support to prevent exploitation with the new A! movement especially, that requires more investigation of how they operate in using work that is copyrighted needs to be recognised so as when used the originator is informed before any usage is decided on and negotiated so exploitation is not involved and fairer treatment becomes a legal requirement of any new proposals created and the originator is informed at the very beginning so decisions are made, openly. Thanks.

Level 4 Change Maker

I am not signing the petition because of it asking for ‘prioritising funding for arts organisations outside London’. The previous government’s ‘leveling up’ agenda has resulted in fantastic London arts organisations being starved of funding - the crassest example being the near destruction of English National Opera, destroying the livelihoods of musicians - amongst them the very freelancers that you pretend to fight for. But that’s just the tip of a very big iceberg. Increase in funding for ALL arts organisations EVERYWHERE across the country should be what you campaign for, NOT taking it away from some to benefit others. I won’t sign. It’s a stupid petition.