n a recent speech to the UK Community Foundations Conference about encouraging greater philanthropic support for arts and culture, Sir Peter Bazalgette, chairman of Arts Council England (ACE), noted that, according to the Charities Aid Foundation, just 1% of charitable giving goes to the arts.
This figure becomes more alarming considering that, according to a survey by Arts & Business published in May, 89.9% of money given to the arts by individuals goes to London-based organisations.
One of the key planks in the government’s strategy to turn these statistics around, and heavily referenced in Bazalgette’s speech, is the £56m Catalyst Endowment Fund, which was launched last year and is run by ACE, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Under the scheme, museums have until March 2016 to raise money towards a permanent endowment, with donations matched, in most cases pound for pound, up to a total agreed with ACE or HLF. But is the fund delivering on its promise?
Neither ACE nor HLF would reveal the totals raised, citing commercial sensitivities. But conversations with directors at several Catalyst museums outside London would suggest that the answer is positive, with most museums contacted either on or exceeding their target.
HMS Victory – The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth has already raised £15m and drawn down its full £5m total; Pallant House Gallery in Chichester has raised more than £400,000 of its £1m total; Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle has raised £218,000, with a total of £350,000 pledged towards its £1m total; Bath’s Holburne Museum has raised about £860,000 of its £1m total; and a single donation of £530,000 from Goldman Sachs has helped the Turner Contemporary in Margate towards its £1m total.
The Windermere Steamboat Museum in Cumbria and Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth are behind the pack, having raised relatively small amounts towards their totals of £500,000 and £1m respectively. But both are confident of reaching their targets by the March 2016 deadline.
On the wider question of whether philanthropy outside London can thrive in the long term, the jury is still out.
The Holburne Museum’s director, Alexander Sturgis, spoke of being fortunate in Bath to have high net-worth individuals who feel a responsibility to the city, but echoed several other regional directors when he added that “even here, for many of those people the centre of gravity remains London, and they would rather go for the glamour of [sponsoring] a Victoria and Albert or Serpentine than a local museum”.
This figure becomes more alarming considering that, according to a survey by Arts & Business published in May, 89.9% of money given to the arts by individuals goes to London-based organisations.
One of the key planks in the government’s strategy to turn these statistics around, and heavily referenced in Bazalgette’s speech, is the £56m Catalyst Endowment Fund, which was launched last year and is run by ACE, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Under the scheme, museums have until March 2016 to raise money towards a permanent endowment, with donations matched, in most cases pound for pound, up to a total agreed with ACE or HLF. But is the fund delivering on its promise?
Neither ACE nor HLF would reveal the totals raised, citing commercial sensitivities. But conversations with directors at several Catalyst museums outside London would suggest that the answer is positive, with most museums contacted either on or exceeding their target.
HMS Victory – The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth has already raised £15m and drawn down its full £5m total; Pallant House Gallery in Chichester has raised more than £400,000 of its £1m total; Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle has raised £218,000, with a total of £350,000 pledged towards its £1m total; Bath’s Holburne Museum has raised about £860,000 of its £1m total; and a single donation of £530,000 from Goldman Sachs has helped the Turner Contemporary in Margate towards its £1m total.
The Windermere Steamboat Museum in Cumbria and Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth are behind the pack, having raised relatively small amounts towards their totals of £500,000 and £1m respectively. But both are confident of reaching their targets by the March 2016 deadline.
On the wider question of whether philanthropy outside London can thrive in the long term, the jury is still out.
The Holburne Museum’s director, Alexander Sturgis, spoke of being fortunate in Bath to have high net-worth individuals who feel a responsibility to the city, but echoed several other regional directors when he added that “even here, for many of those people the centre of gravity remains London, and they would rather go for the glamour of [sponsoring] a Victoria and Albert or Serpentine than a local museum”.
