Making waves

The regeneration of Hastings (p5) offers a particularly good example of what can be achieved when a group of people get together for a common purpose: a grassroots movement managed to “turn the town into a cultural hot-spot”, forcing the seaside town’s authorities and funders to sit up and take notice of a hitherto marginalised group whose potential value in local development plans had been completely overlooked. But it’s not just artists who can do this. The Arts Ventures initiative (p12) is the brain child of a small group of arts professionals keen to extend access to investment finance in the arts sector. They haven’t hung around waiting for the arts councils to take action (though coincidentally, Arts Council England has just announced an investment programme of its own; p2). They’ve seen a need and set out to address it, united in their vision for an arts sector that is less dependent on the vagaries of grant funding and more resilient to the ever-changing economic environment, but at the same time suspicious that fundraising and philanthropy isn’t the whole answer. A group that shares this suspicion – but for quite different reasons – is Platform (p8). Their protests about arts sponsorship by organisations with a dubious environmental record provide another good example of how a group of like-minded individuals can make waves. The Government may be hoping that private giving will become the bedrock of arts funding in years to come, but Platform is effectively reminding funders and arts organisations alike of the dangers of unquestioning acceptance of the corporate shilling. Just like the Hastings artists, they are determined not to be overlooked – but I fear it may take a bigger storm to turn the tide on this one.