New cash to target fallow areas

The 71 areas of England which fall into the lowest 20% for arts engagement will soon be eligible for investment from a new £37m Lottery-funded Arts Council England (ACE) scheme aimed at stimulating “radical new approaches to developing excellent, inspiring and sustainable arts experiences for communities not currently engaging with the arts”. Grants worth between £500,000 and £3m over three years will be made from the ‘Creative People and Places’ fund to around 15 programmes of activity, with a view to increasing arts participation. Long-term collaborations between local communities and arts organisations, museums, libraries and local authorities will be favoured, including new consortia that have not worked with ACE before. Successful funding applicants will have to demonstrate a 10-year vision for their initiatives and show that their arts offer will be sustainable beyond the period of ACE’s investment. Approximately 10.4 million adults live in the areas designated as having ‘low engagement’ with the arts – areas identified in the ‘Active People’ data for 2009 and 2010. The biggest tranche of funding, around £20m, will go to the North of England, where 5.8 million adults live in areas of low engagement. Interested consortia need to register their intention to apply for funding by 23 March.