Large sign on a wall saying 'If you can dream it you must do it'

Concept design for an artwork by Mark Titchner, commissioned by Luton Culture

News

Arts Council England invests £1.1m in Luton

Grants awarded through the new Luton Investment Programme have gone to the fund’s three strategic partners and Watford Palace Theatre.

Frances Richens
3 min read

Arts Council England (ACE) has awarded more than half of the money ring-fenced for its new Luton Investment Programme to the fund’s strategic partners.

£1.16m has been awarded to four organisations to deliver arts and cultural activity in Luton over the next three years, in what ACE described as a “new approach” to funding that could “influence how we work with / invest in places in the future”.

Luton Borough Council, Luton Culture and the University of Bedfordshire partnered with ACE to develop the programme and were all successful in applying for grants. The only organisation to receive funding through the programme that is not also a strategic partner is Watford Palace Theatre.

ACE received 12 applications to the five strands of its new £1.5m programme between 19 October and 11 December last year, and has awarded grants through four of the strands. There was only one applicant to the final strand, ‘A creative producer’, and they were not successful. ACE has put out a new call for applications between £40,000 and £340,000, and has widened its remit to allow artists and arts organisations from London to apply for funding.

A fair investment process?

When AP questioned the fairness of granting funds to the programme’s strategic partners, ACE responded: “Their insight was an essential part of shaping the five strands, which was very welcome, but that is where their contribution to the programme development ended. Decisions were made following an open and competitive application process and set against the published guidance for the Luton Investment Programme.

“We are excited by the proposals set out by each of the successful applicants, all of which strongly illustrate how they will fulfil the ambitions of the Luton Investment Programme.”

A new approach

The Programme aims to “raise ambition, provide development opportunities and foster partnership working in Luton”. Luton is one of three ‘super diverse’ populations outside of London – where no single ethnic group is in the majority – and the Programme aims to ensure the town’s cultural offer has “something for everyone”.

ACE took a new approach to investment in Luton after a number of key arts organisations in the town lost their funding in recent years. The Luton Centre for Carnival Arts was dropped from the national portfolio in 2014/15, while The Hat Factory, which is now part of Luton Culture, and Theatre Is…, which conducted much of its work in Luton, lost their status as regularly funded organisations in 2012/13.

How the money is being spent

  • £375k to Luton Culture, the charitable trust that manages 17 venues in Luton as well as ACE’s Creative People and Places project in the area, for a programme of public realm arts and animation
  • £375k to the University Of Bedfordshire for ‘TestBeds’, a training and professional development programme for artists in and around Luton
  • £350k to Watford Palace Theatre for a cultural festival, drawing on its experience delivering outdoor arts festival ‘Imagine Watford’
  • £60k to Luton Borough Council for the creation of a ten-year strategic vision for arts and culture, responding to the super diverse population of Luton.