Arts Council England
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The Space awarded £3 million to support 800 arts and culture organisations

Arts Council England has announced The Space will receive £3 million of National Lottery funding to deliver a programme of digital skills development between 2018-2021.

Building on the expertise and learning it has developed since 2012, The Space will support arts and culture organisations to extend the digital reach of arts content and experiences.

The Space’s track record in supporting digital skills development through its commissioning of projects, training workshops and online resources means it is well equipped to work with the wider sector, as well as our funded organisations. The Space will engage at least 800 art organisations & museums through the programme.

Key focus areas will include:

  • Training and Skills Development: focusing on subjects ranging from digital strategy, online audience development and the production of creative and cultural digital content for broadcast and online distribution delivered through workshops, webinars and online learning.
  • Digital development services: supporting arts and cultural organisations’ work in developing creative media including strategic planning, broadcast and digital production support, content distribution and audience development services
  • Sector strategic support: addressing identified sector-wide needs in relation to skills and understanding in multi-media production, and then facilitating initiatives designed to reduce barriers to the production of digital creative projects
  • Creative broadcast and digital R and D investments: they will commission and support the development of 60 projects to allow arts and cultural organisations to test approaches to extending their work digitally, acquiring new skills and gaining practical, sustainable experience in creating digital content and engaging broadcast and online audiences

The programme of work continues the joint support of Arts Council England and BBC Arts  in funding digital commissioning and development for arts and cultural organisations through The Space. Details of the programme the BBC is supporting will be announced in due course.

Simon Mellor, Deputy Chief Executive of Art and Culture, at Arts Council England said: “We want to help arts and culture organisations to take advantage of the creative and business opportunities that new technologies offer. We want them to use these technologies to engage with new audiences in new ways and build more resilient businesses.  We believe that The Space can play a central role in helping many of those organisations develop the skills they need to take advantage of those opportunities. We are delighted therefore to be working alongside the BBC to invest in The Space for another three years and support the company in the next stage of its evolution.”

Jonty Claypole, Director of BBC Arts added: “Over the last few years, The Space has played a transformative role in supporting many arts organisations to create new media content – for digital distribution as well as broadcast. The BBC is delighted to be joining Arts Council England in continuing to support its work. We want to see artists and organisations from across the UK producing new experiences that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. And we look forward to sharing those projects with audiences everywhere.”

Fiona Morris, CEO and Creative Director of The Space said:“We are delighted to have been awarded this National Lottery funding by Arts Council England and to be continuing our relationship with the BBC. It will enable us to continue to build on the sector engagement and digital capacity building that we have been developing over the last four years, allowing us to collaborate with even more arts and cultural organisations to deliver digital innovation, increased online diversity and reach for cultural content and the opportunity to showcase the incredible range of creative content being produced by arts and cultural organisations across England.”

Digital and creative media is playing an increasingly important role in plans to reach new audiences.  Between 2018 and 2022, all National Portfolio Organisations that receive funding of more than £250,000 a year from the Arts Council will be required to have digital policies and plans showing how they will use digital technologies to help contribute to our goals. This will help organisations to reach more people, and deliver better value for our investment.

For more information contact:
Alison Millar, Communications Officer, Arts Council England
Tel: 0207 268 9648 Email: Alison.Millar@artscouncil.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Space is a commissioning and development agency committed to supporting and facilitating the UK arts sector to realise its digital ambitions. We do this through the commissioning of arts projects, supporting arts and cultural organisations to develop their digital plans and activities and offering training workshops, advice and resources. We have supported the delivery of over 180 digital projects to date, with online and broadcast audiences for these projects exceeding 11 million sessions. Read more about our impact here: https://www.thespace.org/news/opening-arts-over-11-million-people.

The Space was originally founded as a partnership between the Arts Council England and the BBC and is now an independent Community Interest Company (CIC) based in Birmingham with a Board of Directors from the arts, media and technology. www.thespace.org

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. We invest public money from government and the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk

BBC Arts

The BBC has an ongoing commitment to arts programming – “the greatest commitment to arts for a generation” as announced by the Director General in 2014. The BBC aims to provide the broadest range and depth of music and arts programmes across television, radio and online. It creates non-commercial partnerships with the arts sector that go beyond broadcast, from sharing expertise to encouraging cross collaboration and creation in order to widen public engagement in UK arts. It aims to provide context through original, fresh discussion and perspectives and is the biggest investor and creator of original arts and music programming. In 2017 Tony Hall BBC Director General, announced Culture UK, a new approach to collaboration, commissioning and creativity in partnership with Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Arts Council of Wales, the British Council and Creative Scotland. The initiative will develop UK-wide cultural festivals that can reach new audiences, support artist-led commissioning in broadcast and digital media.

Channel website: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

Original article link: http://press.artscouncil.org.uk/press_releases/the-space-awarded-3-million-to-support-800-arts-and-culture-organisations/

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