Funding the future – a risky business?

“Where do I start?” is a question that we hear weekly from the 42,000 members of our online youth arts community IdeasTap and one that I’ve also worked through with my kids.

With publicly subsidised arts organisations feeling the effects of Government funding cuts and private supporters less likely to take a punt on something or someone new, kicking off a career in the arts is more challenging than ever.
Whilst the impact of the current climate on young people struggling to get their first break is clear, I also wonder how it will affect our cultural landscape in 10 or 20 years time.
As a philanthropist investing in youth arts my major concern is whether we are continuing to provide routes through which the next generations of ambitious artists and their original work can flourish. Or, is there a danger that cut backs lead to risk-averse funding models in our sector.
At IdeasTap we believe in directly funding young talent. This means putting money in the pockets of the inexperienced and the unknown.
Now, giving young creatives thousands of pounds to make art isn’t without its risks.
What if they run off and spend it all down the pub? What if they fail to deliver on time, on budget or deliver at all? Could they book a flight and leave the country never to be seen again? These are all questions I’ve asked myself.
Risk doesn’t have to be a dirty word for arts funders, though.
In fact, artists that are willing to take creative risks are often what I’m looking for when deciding whether to allocate our funds. I ask if this work will break new ground, how ambitious the young creatives are and whether funding this project will make a difference.
There are plenty of people funding established organisations and artists to make safe work for audiences already engaged in the arts. That’s why so far we’ve funded all types of new work, from live performance art in a wrestling ring to silent opera (think silent disco meets Mozart), theatrical banquets, a pop up cinema in a petrol station, innovative arts mobile apps… the list goes on.
The latest step in our risk-taking experiment is a late-night multidisciplinary festival next week in The Old Vic Tunnels called Coming Up Later, featuring fearless new talent breaking into the worlds of comedy, theatre and dance, and even including a vintage pornography cabaret installation highlighting sex workers’ rights.
I said it was going to be risky, and perhaps some of it will be risqué. But the point is, we must put our money where our mouth is when investing in brave new work by the leading artists of the future. And so far no-one has taken their funding and blown it down the pub. Well, not yet anyway.