Funding news
Arts & Business is proposing new challenge funds that would match public and private investment in culture. The news came as the organisation revealed its latest figures for private sector investment in the arts, which fell 7 per cent to £654.9m in 2008-09, compared with a record £687m in 2007-08.
Arts & Business chief executive Colin Tweedy said challenge funds were one way in which arts and culture could stimulate private sector investment during the recession.
The organisation has run various match funding schemes since 1984, but abandoned them in England in March 2008 after Arts Council England withdrew £2m in funding. Arts & Business match funding programmes have continued in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In 2007-08, Arts & Business’s £1.8m investment in its two match funding schemes helped cultural organisations lever £8.5m from businesses.
Museums will welcome new ways to attract private sector money, especially when Arts & Business is predicting that investment will fall further, with 2010-11 being the low point.
The 2007-08 figures show private sector investment in museums fell 37 per cent to £80.8m, although the figures were skewed by the £20m donation shipping magnate Sammy Ofer made to London’s National Maritime Museum the year before. The visual arts did better, with investment rising 15 per cent to £68.6m in 2008-09.
Arts & Business will reveal its full report for private investment in culture in 2008-09 at an event in London on 26 March
Simon Stephens
Links
Fundraising feature, MJ February 2010, p24