Art bodies target social investment

5 Mar 2012 01:30 PM

A group of art organisations have come together to encourage new investment in the sector by asking social investors to take part in a pilot scheme.

Arts Ventures Fund Group, the new scheme, is made up of a number of collectives like the Rayne Foundation, Poet in the City, Investing for Good, Live Theatre and Mission Models Money. 

They hope that the initiative will encourage new types of funding for the arts, including for charitable organisations, and that it will pair up social investors with art groups wanting non-grant income. The group also hopes this type of funding will help develop capital projects and help artists earn more income.

Tim Joss, Rayne Foundation director, told Arts Professional magazine that the move has also come about in the light of the public spending cutbacks. He added:

'The rest of the not-for-profit sector is way ahead of the arts in finding solutions to this, and this scheme aims to offer arts organisations the opportunity to develop viable capital projects, but also to reduce their long-term dependence on public sector funding.'

Mission Models Money said although similar investment is available through organisations like Triodos and Venturesome, the arts need an alternative type of finance. They added:

'Our assessment of the market is that the sorts of financing that arts and cultural organisations most need - high-risk capital to develop new ventures and underwriting (money allocated and called down if needed) to underpin cashflow are in relatively short supply - at least relative to the potential demand.'