Festival launches fundraising appeal after ACE rejection

Leaders of the Cheltenham Paint Festival have launched a fundraising appeal after Arts Council England (ACE) turned down their application for National Lottery Project Funding.

Writing on Facebook, the team behind the free annual event said: "After our 2023 event, the South West Director of the Arts Council of England, Phil Gibby, visited the festival and could not believe they weren't funding us and persuaded me to go for funding for the next event. Despite that, we have been turned down by them yet again.

"Sadly, this puts us in the position of, once again, asking you wonderful supporters to step in where they've failed."

Speaking to BBC Radio Gloucestershire, festival Founder Andy Davies said: "I accept there's a process and it's hard times, and an increasingly larger amount of people are applying for an increasingly smaller amount of money.

"But what's galling is, having looked at [the projects ACE] does support…they are ticketed and gated, they have funds coming in.

"As a free arts festival, we don't have a gate, we can't charge people to get in to the town and it's very difficult to run without that sort of resource."

Davies also suggested that the perception of Cheltenham as being wealthy had been detrimental to his bid. 

The event was cancelled in 2023 due to a lack of funds but went ahead after a successful public appeal. Since its launch on 14 April, the current appeal has raised £1,890 toward a £20,000 target. 

ACE commented: "We're pleased to have supported Cheltenham Paint Festival on a number of occasions in the past, but the National Lottery Project Grants programme is highly competitive, and regrettably, there are always many more good applications than the Arts Council can fund.

"While the Festival's most recent application was unsuccessful, we welcome future submissions and remain in close contact with cultural stakeholders in the area."

Separately, The Elgar Festival has also asked for public donations after ACE cut its project funding by 40% to £29,999.

Kenneth Woods, Elgar Festival's Artistic Director, said: "ACE is operating under really difficult funding restraints which have built up over more than a decade of standstill revenues.

“But they have also made a number of strategic decisions to shift investment away from traditional art forms into community work, non-traditional art forms, urban renewal and social justice.

"All of these are worthwhile endeavours, but the Arts Council is the only dedicated state funder of the arts serving English communities and supporting English artists and arts organisations."

An Arts Council England spokesperson said: “Arts Council England is absolutely committed to creative excellence, in all the shapes and sizes it comes in, and across all the arts organisations, museums and libraries in which we invest. 

“We have a longstanding relationship with the festival and have awarded them £143,000 worth of public money since 2019, via our National Lottery project funding.

“Competition for this particular fund is very high and funding does not roll over from one project to another, nor is it guaranteed year after year. To that end, it is testament to the strength of Elgar Festival’s offering that we have been able to invest in them as often as we have.”