NewcastleGateshead Initiative response to today’s Arts Council England funding announcement
Juice, NewcastleGateshead’s award-winning festival for children and young people joins National Portfolio.
Juice Festival, produced by NewcastleGateshead Initiative, is one of 46 organisations nationally that is new to the Arts Council England portfolio, with funding worth £300,000 secured over the next three years (April 2015 – March 2018).
Carol Bell, Head of Culture & Major Events at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said: “We are delighted to have secured NPO status for Juice Festival, NewcastleGateshead’s festival for children and young people. Juice’s vision is to be the leading children and young people’s arts and cultural festival in the UK and Europe. NPO status will enable us to continue to pursue this ambition and to really establish Juice as a festival of national and international significance, building on the great work delivered over the past seven years.
“At a time of reduced public funding for the arts, this announcement demonstrates Arts Council England’s confidence in both the festival’s track record and its future potential – potential which is all the greater as a result of the NPO award. Having this three year support allows us to plan more effectively and develop work over a longer period of time. It also provides confidence to other potential funders, supporters and collaborators.
“The festival’s success to date is undoubtedly thanks to the commitment and support of a wide range of partners, including NGCV, as well as the expertise and dedication of Rachel Adam and Claire Newton, the creative team who really shaped Juice from the outset. Thank you to all.
“We’re very much looking forward to Juice 2014, which is being developed with award-winning author David Almond as Artistic Advisor – and we can now also start to plan for ambitious new work and projects for the years ahead.”
For more information or to request an interview with Carol Bell, please contact Shelley Armstrong, Media & PR Manager at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, 0191 440 5739, shelley.armstrong@ngi.org.uk
Supporting information:
About ACE NPO Funding
The National Portfolio funding programme officially launched on 1 April 2012 providing funding for a national portfolio of 696 organisations. A new National portfolio of 670 arts organisations (NPOs) and 21 Major Partner Museums (MPMs) has been confirmed today. 46 arts organisations will join the portfolio and 58 leave. Five new museums are added to the portfolio ensuring a wider geographic spread.
About Juice, NewcastleGateshead’s Festival for Children and Young People
Juice is a high quality multi-artform festival creating work with, by and for children, young people and their families that has successfully delivered for seven years across NewcastleGateshead. Juice has built a reputation as a leading festival in the region and is a key player in the national network of children and young people’s festivals
We have a track record of boldly co-presenting ambitious projects such as Haircuts by Children with Wunderbar Festival and Mamalian Diving Reflex and Beastie by Lone Twin. For 2014 award winning author David Almond has agreed to be our Artistic Advisor.
Juice is led by Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI), however its key strength is its approach to partnership working with NewcastleGateshead Cultural Venues (NGCV) and other cultural partners.
All partners see Juice as a strategically important cultural offer across NewcastleGateshead.
Juice applied for NPO investment in order to realise its priorities for 2015-2018, which are:
• Increase the profile of work created by young people as artists and producers.
• Increase the artistic quality of the festival by commissioning new work by national and international artists.
• Raise the profile of Juice as a cutting edge festival in its approach to commissioning new artistic product by putting young people at the centre of this process.
• Recruit an Artistic Director who will build on collaboration to date and develop and lead a strategic vision for the future creating a more robust artistic programme.
• Improve the Festival’s resilience and stability to enable year round longer-term collaborations with NGCV (Newcastle Gateshead Cultural Venues) and other cultural partners.
• Build ‘Team Juice’ as young ambassadors and young cultural leaders who will support the wider cultural offer across NewcastleGateshead and the North East.
• Build upon successful sponsorship relationships with business partnerships.
• Develop broader relationships with Local Authorities through strategic commissioning to support hard to reach children and families.
Arts Council announces investment plans for 2015 to 2018 – news release here: http://press.artscouncil.org.uk/Press-Releases/Arts-Council-announces-investment-plans-for-2015-to-2018-879.aspx
Summary of key details from Arts Council England:
Today (1 July) Arts Council England announces details of its investment plans for the next three years including its new national portfolio of arts organisations and museums representing a major public investment in England’s arts and culture.
These plans include:
A new National Portfolio of 670 arts organisations (NPOs) and 21 Major Partner Museums (MPMs). 46 arts organisations join the portfolio and 58 leave. 5 new museums are added to the portfolio ensuring a wider geographic spread.
The investment in NPOs for 2015/16 will be £339.5million, compared to £341.4m in 2014/15. The MPM budget has increased to £22.6 million in 2015/16 from £21.5 million; an increase of £1.1 million.
An increase to the Grants for the Arts budget to £70m in 2015/16, from £63m in 2014/15.
These increases will lead to a reduction in Strategic funds for the arts overall- a budget of £104m per annum from £153m in 2014/15.
This investment in NPOs and MPMs assumes standstill funding from Government in years 15/16 and 17/18.
The majority of organisations in the new portfolio (75 per cent) have received standstill funding. Uplifts have been given in only exceptional cases – less than 10% of the entire portfolio. 37 organisations have seen funding reduced.
Overall the proposed NPOs budget is now reduced by 0.56 per cent a year in 2015/16, despite a reduction of 36 per cent in grant in aid from government since 2010. The portfolio is only slightly reduced in size from 696 to 670; partly because of the better than expected CSR settlement in 2015/16 from the Chancellor and partly by building on our existing use of lottery money to fund an additional number of organisations. Sustaining the National portfolio in this way means that there will be a significant reduction to the Arts Council’s Strategic funds. Our focus for Strategic funds will therefore be building capacity outside London. For the next three years there will be very limited funds for capital investment and savings have been made across other schemes such as the large scale Catalyst programme which supports endowments for large organisations.
Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair Arts Council England said: “We are in the premier league of creative nations and this portfolio will keep us on top in an era of tight funding. We can delight in our arts organisations and museums for the sheer inspiration they bring to our daily lives as well as their contribution to the creative sector. I’m proud that we’ve been able to deliver such a strong and well balanced portfolio.”
“With 46 new entrants to the National Portfolio, with increased funding for Grants for the Arts, and with Creative People and Places being maintained at its current level over the next period, this settlement represents a commitment by Arts Council England to new talent and building England’s arts and culture capacity all over the country. When funding is declining you have to set priorities – this we have done.”