Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
1 Our vision
In Achieving great art for everyone we identify ‘the dizzying potential of digital
technology in transforming the way we make, distribute, receive and exchange art.’
We want to unlock this vast and largely untapped potential – to create, share and link
artistic and cultural works in ways made uniquely possible through digital media.
We believe the public should be able to access the best of publicly funded culture
through digital media and technologies, complementing and enhancing the essential
live, place-based experiences that will continue to form the backbone of the arts.
We can now connect with audiences in new ways, bringing them into a closer
relationship with the arts and creating new ways for them to take part. We have
unprecedented opportunities to encourage new forms of creativity and artistic
expression, economic growth, business model innovation and wider public access to
arts and culture. We will do this by supporting a new era of digital content and
experiences that are created for, and adapted to, this new digital space.
Digital technologies are transforming society, economy and culture. Global media
networks offer significant opportunities for the UK’s digital content industries
including ‘cultural institutions that foster, create and maintain digital content’1,
enabling them to reach new international audiences and markets. Opportunities to
produce and distribute work, including across multiple platforms, are increasing and
we believe that there is rich potential for the arts and cultural sectors to contribute to
and benefit from this growth area of creative media, accounting for ’70 per cent of
the value and estimated potential growth of the creative industries…in the UK.’ 2
Creative media as a term has been traditionally used to describe the industries
producing digital and creative content.3 This includes those companies working in
1
Sector Skills Assessment for the Creative Media Industries in the UK, Skillset, 2011, p14
2
Ibid, p8
3
Ibid, p8
1
film, television, radio, interactive content, electronic publishing, software and
computer games.
Within this wider ecology and economy, the Arts Council is applying creative media
as a term to refer to artistic and cultural works and content that are created for
digital platforms and/or distributed digitally to engage the public.
This covers all artforms including dance, literature, music, theatre, visual arts, and
combined arts. This includes emerging and innovative hybrid practices that work
across boundaries and disciplines and creative media produced by people within the
arts, museum and libraries sectors.
There are broadly three major areas of creative media content and experiences.
Details of these can be found in Appendix 1.
Our Creative media policy aims to:
support an increase in the quality, volume and reach of digital content and
experiences from the arts and cultural sector for artistic, economic and
audience development and growth.
We have a strong track record of supporting pioneering digital arts practice and
innovations and there are many brilliant artists, arts organisations and museums who
are working in the digital space. However, it remains true that as a proportion of our
overall investment in the arts, only a small fraction of the arts and culture we fund or
have funded can be accessed and enjoyed by the public through digital platforms.
We understand some of the barriers and challenges for artists and cultural
organisations in producing and preserving creative media for current and future
audiences. But we know the rewards will be transformational.
What will success look like?

more artists will choose to create new work for audiences using digital tools
and platforms

more excellent creative media from the arts and cultural sector will become
accessible through digital platforms, catalogued, linked and archived for
current and future audiences
2

there will be an increase in the numbers and range of people accessing
publicly funded creative media through digital devices and platforms

the Arts Council’s National portfolio of funded organisations will have
developed their capacity in key areas identified within the policy

more opportunities for artists, curators and cultural producers will be created
to work with higher education, researchers, technologists and creative media
industry partners to innovate and produce new creative media content,
products and services

new partnership approaches will generate new expertise, investment and
sponsorship to strengthen arts and cultural organisations’ creative media work
and audience engagement in arts and culture

rigorous research and development, investment and knowledge transfer
programmes will generate new learning in relation to reaching new audiences,
markets and developing business models
Creating the conditions for success
We need to focus our efforts now on achieving this potential. We will invest in major
skills and capacity building initiatives that are flexible, responsive and address gaps
identified in feedback from the arts, museums and library sectors.
We will focus our advocacy, investment and development activities on helping
connect artists, performers, curators, producers and organisations to each other and
to skills, expertise and investments from the wider creative media and technology
industries.
We want to bring the dynamic energies of our best contemporary artists, creatives
and curators together with our vast artistic and cultural heritage into this new exciting
digital space. This new connected vision of art and culture stretches across art
forms, time and geographic boundaries. The public has invested in all that we fund,
and they have a growing expectation to be able to access it via different media. And
so this policy approach describes how we will contribute to achieving great art and
culture for everyone digitally.
3
Partnerships and collaboration will be essential to deliver the creative media policy
and address the major development opportunities and challenges. We look forward
to strengthening our existing partnerships, building new relationships with partners
from the wider creative industries and working closely with our funded organisations
to develop more detailed and imaginative proposals.
2 Context
The latest generation of digital technologies – from smartphones and tablets to
internet TVs – is leading to the emergence of ‘next-generation internet users’ who
own multiple internet-connected devices and access the internet from multiple
locations, especially on the move.4 Take up of digital communications services
reached landmark thresholds in 2011: nearly all households (97 per cent) now have
digital TV; household internet take-up has reached 78 per cent; and over 30 per cent
of mobile users now own a smartphone. Over 1 million internet-connected TVs were
sold in the UK in 20115.’
Recent research has confirmed that 53 per cent of the on-line population has used
the internet to engage with arts and culture in the past 12 months6 and we believe
that the potential for UK and international audiences to experience arts and culture
through these expanding digital platforms is enormous.
The Arts Council has been working strategically to support digital innovation and
development over the past five years. This is in addition to our policy responsibilities
for digital arts, artists’ film and video and arts broadcasting,7 and in funding a range
of digital work across art forms through our National portfolio and Grants for the arts
funding programmes.
Digital opportunities was one of our four corporate priorities between 2008 and 2011.
This generated hundreds of diverse projects across England and new research into
digital engagement and the availability of great art on digital platforms. Through this
programme, we identified a paucity of digital content from the arts sector together
4
William H. Dutton and Grant Blank, Next Generation Users: The Internet in Britain, OII, 2011
5
Communications Market Report, Ofcom, 2011
6
Digital audiences: engagement with arts and culture online, MTM London, 2010
7
These policies were agreed with DCMS and the former UK Film Council and relate to Appendix F, Film Council
and the Arts Council of England Guidance note, Policy responsibilities for Film, Television and the Moving Image
from 1 April 2000 in Film in England, UK Film Council, 2000
4
with skills gaps in areas such as media production and distribution, understanding
audiences, business models, technology, data and intellectual property. It was also
clear that for many, ‘digital development’ related substantially to marketing their
venue/organisation using digital platforms such as the web and social media but not
to the creation of digital content and experiences as part of their core artistic, cultural
or educational mission.
In our responses to Ofcom’s Public service broadcasting review and to Digital
Britain, we identified the significant potential for arts and cultural organisations to
contribute to a more vibrant and plural public service content ecology through
becoming producers and commissioners of media content and experiences and
extending public value.
Our 10-year strategic framework for arts, museums and libraries outlined in
Achieving great art for everyone and Culture, knowledge and understanding: great
museums and libraries for everyone presents digital technologies as an overarching
context for arts and culture. It also sets out specific priorities: ‘strengthening the
distribution of excellent art through touring and digital platforms’ and developing
‘digital work to encompass museums and libraries and encourage a greater sharing
of collections and assets, extend reach and generate richer experiences for
audiences.’
Our framework also recognised that digital development and innovation related to all
of its five goals, with a need for artistic innovation, excellent content and experiences
that could be distributed and/or engage audiences directly, the building of sector
skills, capacity and resilience and the need to ensure a strong cultural offer for
children and young people.
In 2011/12, to begin to address these issues, we launched three major digital
programmes:

The Space, a £5.5 million programme with the BBC and BFI that attracted 750
applications, and supported 53 commissions

Building digital capacity for the arts – a £200,000 partnership between the
Arts Council and BBC Academy to create a programme of digital development
and skills sharing through workshops and seminars across England

the Digital R&D fund for arts and culture, a £500,000 fund run through a
partnership between the Arts Council, Nesta and the Arts and Humanities
5
Research Council (AHRC) which attracted 495 applications and supported
eight action research projects.
3 Arts Council England’s policy approach to creative media
’We are at the very beginning of a new era in arts development, with dramatic shifts
underway in how art is produced, distributed and consumed. While there are several
trailblazing organisations … issues of capacity, know-how, confidence and
recalcitrance are combining to block progression and in turn stifle innovation and
growth.’8
We believe a creative media policy is now needed for the arts, museums and
libraries to provide a structured approach to this vibrant, converged ecology.
The policy has the potential to support and strengthen the wider cultural
infrastructure and deliver greater public value and engagement.
The policy covers all artforms and the totality of our development and investment
activities including the work of our National portfolio organisations and Major partner
museums, strategic funding and Grants for the arts. The policy will support activities
that engage children and young people both as creators and audiences
We have a commitment to the widest distribution and accessibility of creative media.
Our policy aims to be as inclusive as possible and we will ensure that accessibility is
central to our approach.
This policy sets out nine development areas that will need to be addressed if we are
going to see a significant growth in the quality, volume and reach of creative media
content and experiences produced by arts and cultural organisations.
These development areas are:
1. Skills and training
Arts Council research and reports by UKOLN have identified a particular need for
skills and workforce development in relation to creative media production,
commissioning and distribution. This is in addition to areas of development within
other parts of the creative media policy approach such as rights, data and archives.
We will develop partnerships that will contribute to creating a coherent approach to
8
Tom Fleming Consultancy, Supporting growth in the arts economy, Arts Council England, 2011
6
skills development. We will encourage local networks and skills development
programmes to respond to current gaps in provision.
2. Talent development
Artists’ practice is changing in response to new technologies and there is a shift in
the types of work being made across different artforms and a blurring of the
boundaries between artforms. In order to support these new types of work we will
ensure that our approach to talent development embraces creative media and
supports a greater diversity of progression routes for individuals and artists working
in and across sectors. We want to support artists’ ambitions to work in film,
broadcasting, games and with new technologies to develop and create more work,
crossing over into new areas of practice. We will work closely with the BFI and other
partners to achieve this objective.
3. Media production
People working in the arts and cultural sectors are beginning to incorporate creative
media practices into their work, and to re-imagine what an arts and cultural
experience can be digitally. We will invest in and support artists and organisations so
that they can develop new kinds of audio-visual content that can engage audiences
in new, interactive and participatory ways (see Appendix 1 for more detail).
Low-cost production technologies mean that arts and culture can be available more
quickly, cheaply, flexibly and at a higher quality than was previously possible.
However, many organisations lack the necessary skills and experience to reconceive and adapt great art and culture for a digital environment. In order to make
the best use of available technology and distribution platforms, the arts and culture
sector need to form partnerships with organisations with complementary expertise
and resources that allow widespread and effective production and distribution of
content.
We will create and broker large-scale partnerships to open up new development
opportunities and platforms for arts and culture. In doing so, we will also seek to
create opportunities for knowledge transfer so that the participating organisations
can learn how to develop and create more work in the future.
4. Digital exhibition and distribution
New technology, from smart phone apps to online streaming, has opened up new
possibilities and challenges for artists and organisations. This could create the
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opportunity, in some cases, for international revenues to be generated. We see
potential partnership opportunities in working with the British Council, UK Trade and
Investment (UKTI) and others to support new models of co-production and
distribution and attract international interest and funding.
We will work to strengthen the physical and digital infrastructure for art and culture
with partners across England. We have a shared interest with the BFI in a wide
range of media and film venues and festivals and we know that more can be
achieved through an integrated cultural approach. We will support digital exhibition
of creative media particularly in regions where arts and cultural engagement and the
producing infrastructure is low. The libraries digital infrastructure also offers
opportunities to reach new audiences and provide public access to digital content
and services.
Improving search, aggregation and curation are vital issues in the digital space to
help attract attention and improve the discoverability of creative media. The Arts
Council’s partnership with the BBC and BFI on The Space provides a good example
of a bold public sector intervention in creating a space for a wide diversity of new
commissions and archived cultural works for the public, forging relationships across
genre, era and individual artists and/or organisations.
5. Archives and collections
A huge amount of publicly-funded culture is contained in archives. Some has been
digitised already, but much remains inaccessible. This limits audience choice and
therefore the ability to maximise the delivery of public value through archived
material.
Greater coordination across the arts, cultural, heritage and creative media sectors
can help to ensure that arts and cultural archives and collections are digitised,
available, attractive, easy to find and can be brought to life in new ways.
In partnership with the National Archives (which has the government mandate for
archive sector leadership) the BFI (which has a strategic responsibility for audiovisual archives) and other partners including the BBC, we will address a range of
archive issues, including shared adoption of standards which will help to make this
work more publically accessible. We will encourage best practice in archives
management, helping organisations to think about how they may capture and
archive the creative media they have produced for future long term use and access.
8
We will support skills development in archiving, rights management, curation and
preservation as we recognise that these represent pressing needs.
We will help artists to explore the creative use and reuse, where appropriate, of arts
and cultural archive material. And we are committed to making the Arts Council’s
own archives of cultural material, including our film collection, digitally available.
6. Data and metadata
Arts and cultural organisations need to understand the value of cultural digital assets
including the data they hold about their work and their audiences and how this can
be used to maximise their public value. Data and its importance to online businesses
is becoming increasingly clear. Harnessing and analysing this data is an important
step in the development of strong public-facing applications and shared intelligence
about audiences. It can also help to inform strategic decisions that organisations
may take as part of their business development.
The gathering of data and use of metadata (information about digital assets) is a
hugely important area of work in relation to creative media. Rich metadata can
enhance users’ experience and help organisations to better engage and understand
their audiences. Metadata co-operation across sectors is vital for improving
discovery and access. We will explore with partners how we can encourage the
adoption of standard forms of metadata more widely. This can help to create a digital
public space by which publically funded art and culture works are digitised,
catalogued and archived, enabling them to be linked, found and enjoyed.
7. Rights and intellectual property
Rights and intellectual property are a challenge for all artists and organisations and a
lack of understanding about relevant legislation, models and professional practice as
well as the difficulty of negotiating new electronic distribution rights, especially in the
performing arts, hinders their ability to make work available through digital channels.
Many artists and organisations lack knowledge, confidence and experience in
preparing material and clearing rights for digital distribution or exhibition and need
support to be better informed about the types of rights agreements that are available
and current best practice in negotiating rights for digital distribution of work.
9
The Hargreaves report on intellectual property9 sets an overall policy direction that
can benefit the creative and cultural sectors (as well as the wider economy) but there
is a need for interventions and support aimed explicitly at the cultural sector. While
there are already sources of advice for the creative sector in relation to intellectual
property and rights, more detailed and specialist training and support is needed to
help organisations grappling with the challenges of making their work available
digitally and where they want to derive an income from their assets. We will actively
encourage sharing of models of best practice and will work with partners to support
this complex landscape and identify the best mechanisms for support.
8. Audience engagement and learning
This challenge relates predominantly to how we will engage audiences in
conversations around creative media and encourage new forms of participation and
learning in areas that may have been hitherto unavailable.
Digital media provides unprecedented opportunities for the public to engage with and
learn more about art and culture in new ways including: co-producing, re-working
and participating in creative media content, and building rich and personalised social
media profiles around art and culture that interests them. We will encourage our
funded organisations to develop creative media that can engage audiences of all
ages, building knowledge and deepening understanding.
As the technical barriers to accessing creative media are reduced, it is important that
work from the arts and cultural sector should be created with a view to reaching the
widest possible audience including new audiences and those who do not currently
engage in the arts.
More sophisticated analysis of current and potential markets for digital work is
needed together with a common approach to audience metrics and development.
The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts run by the Arts Council, Nesta and the Arts and
Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will play an important role in testing new
approaches to deepening audience engagement and extending reach through digital
work and technologies. In addition, our Audience focus fund will be supporting arts
and cultural organisations to segment and analyse their live and digital audiences.
9. Business models and organisational development
9
Professor Ian Hargreaves, Digital Opportunity: A review of intellectual property and growth, Intellectual Property
Office, 2011
10
The development of creative media by arts and cultural organisations will have a
significant impact on their business models. Arts and cultural organisations want to
understand how to use new digital technologies to explore new business models that
will allow them to raise revenue, explore untapped markets and lower costs.
There is a need for research to provide tested models that organisations can use or
adapt to their own businesses. Our expanded Digital R&D fund for the Arts run in
partnership with Nesta and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will
provide this research and we hope that it will lead to the development of new
business models across the sector.
Alongside the goal of delivering public value, we want to support the arts and cultural
sector to generate revenue, by monetising content where appropriate, and to explore
new income streams from creative media through subscription, commercial
sponsorship, mobile and social media marketing and paid-for digital advertising. This
could involve sector-wide or collaborative approaches.
Other areas of digital development
This Creative media policy is not intended to cover the full range of digital innovation
and development. Some important aspects of digital development and information
(such as the digital marketing of live place based activities, digital marketing content
about organisations, venues, events listings, online box offices and ticketing
systems for events) are not directly referenced within the creative media policy but
are an essential part of our public engagement work.
Investment in IT infrastructure for organisational operations lies outside this policy
although some investment in technology is in its scope where it facilitates aspects of
the policy described above. Fundraising using digital technologies (eg crowd
sourcing) is not in scope except in relation to creative media work that is distributed
digitally and for which an artist or organisation is seeking support.
We also acknowledge that some digital activity particularly in relation to museums
and libraries may fall outside the policy although within the framework outlined in
Culture, knowledge and understanding. For example, much museum activity centres
on managing digital data in relation to collections and creating resources to support
education, learning and research. These are only in the scope of this policy where
data and metadata relates to creative media content and experiences. Much library
activity is centred around managing and making resources accessible not
necessarily in the creation or distribution of work.
11
The Renaissance programme for museums will continue to support collections
based work primarily through our investment in two external organisations:
Collections Trust and Culture 24. We will be working closely with museums, libraries
and partners including the Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure alignment and to explore
the potential for the contribution of museums and libraries to the policy.
4 How will we achieve this?
Funded organisations
We will maintain a strategic overview of creative media activity, in particular in
relation to the work of our funded organisations. Between 2012 and 2015 every
National portfolio organisation and Major partner museum has a mandatory key
performance indicator (KPI) to ‘increase work made available digitally’, with each
organisation identifying key areas of growth.
We will measure the quality, volume of creative media produced and audiences for
this work through audience and artistic peer assessment.
We will work with National portfolio organisations, Major partner museums and
partners in 2012/13 to agree a new framework for measuring digital engagement
with creative media and in measuring digital engagement with arts and cultural
organisations more broadly, identifying more sophisticated measures of audience
engagement and metrics.
We will support best practice in digital accessibility. Being mindful of the
requirements of individuals with impairments of various kinds, cultural organisations
should be planning to reach an acceptable standard of digital accessibility with
websites meeting at least W3C Single A accessibility standard. We expect
organisations to consider digital accessibility from the start of any new project or
commission; scoping, scaling, development and delivery.
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Development activities - supporting creative media partnerships and learning
We are committed to working with National portfolio organisations and Major partner
museums to facilitate knowledge sharing and dialogue, showcase best practice and
to improve learning.
We will play an active development role in forging and facilitating partnerships that
support the key strands of our approach. We will work with a wide range of partners
including those below, with whom we have a shared interest and/or investment.

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broadcasters including BBC, Channel 4 and Sky Arts
film bodies including the BFI, Creative England, Film London and former
screen agencies
public sector bodies including Nesta, Heritage Lottery Fund, JISC, the
Strategic Content Alliance and The National Archives
government bodies and agencies including the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport (DCMS); Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
(BIS); the Intellectual Property Office (IPO); and UK Trade and Investment
(UKTI)
Creative Scotland, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council Wales and
the British Council
Arts Council England’s National portfolio organisations and Major partner
museums
national museums and libraries
digital media companies and producers
publishing and newspaper companies
games and interactive media companies
independent production companies
technology bodies including Technology Strategy Board
higher education institutions and research bodies including the Arts and
Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
community media including Community Media Association and Media
Trust
skills and support agencies including Creative Skillset and CC Skills
strategic audience and marketing bodies including AMA and Audiences
England
We will work closely with the BFI to ensure that our respective funding mechanisms
are clear and complementary. A new partnership between the Arts Council and BFI
will be announced in autumn 2012. This will update the Film in England areas of
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policy responsibility, defined within Appendix 1, and describe new areas of joint
working including co-investment mechanisms where appropriate.
The BBC and the Arts Council have confirmed that they are working on a new Public
Value Partnership to run between 2013 and 2016. The main focus of this partnership
will be finding ways to help the arts and cultural sector develop its digital capacity
and to produce new creative media. As part of this, both organisations are actively
exploring the legacy of The Space and we expect to have more details in the
autumn.
Investment mechanisms to support creative media
Historically, we have funded a wide range of digital development and innovation.
This will continue through our open funding schemes for example, Grants for the
arts.
We will ensure that our investment activities create an impact and contribute to a
sustainable creative media ecology across England. We will support people and
organisations working in hot spots of creative media activity to provide examples of
best practice and opportunities for sector-wide development, but also support areas
across the country in which investment in producers and infrastructure is less well
developed and where there is evidence of need and potential.
Digital innovation strategic funding
A £20 million fund for ‘digital innovation’ was publicly announced in 2011. We can
confirm the following investment areas and allocations to support the creative media
policy. This supports three main areas of investment.
The Space (current pilot) (11/12)
The Space (set aside for future phase) (12-15)
Digital R&D Fund for the Arts (12-15)
Creative media infrastructure programme (13-15)
Total Investment
£3.5 million (already allocated)
£8 million
£6 million
£2.5 million
£20 million
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The Space (November 2012 – March 2015)
The Space (thespace.org.uk) is a groundbreaking initiative developed by the Arts
Council and BBC that has resulted in a new experimental arts service that can
distribute creative media across all platforms and devices.
The Space was designed to address development challenges identified in this policy
particularly in relation to skills development, media production and attracting
audiences to creative media. . A £3.5 million media commissioning fund was
launched in November 2011. £2 million came from the BBC to deliver the technology
solution, and staff resources to facilitate publishing work, curation, mentoring,
training and editorial support. The BFI created a film channel within The Space
bringing significant curation, expertise and rare archive material into the service.
We are learning a great deal from the experience of The Space pilot and will be
conducting evaluation into the services’ audiences and impact on participating
organisations. Since the launch of The Space in May 2012, audience feedback and
numbers have been encouraging and we believe the pilot has potential to extend
and develop. Both the Arts Council and BBC want to continue to develop the legacy
of The Space further. The Arts Council is committing £8 million from digital strategic
funding to support a further phase of The Space, including support for media
production funds to addressing many of the areas of creative media policy, to run
from November 2012 to March 2015. Further details will be announced in the
autumn.
The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts (July 2012-March 2015)
This investment explicitly addresses development challenges 8 and 9 of the policy
and also 2,3,4,5. Funding to support new creative media content and experiences
are in scope in sofar as they relate to audience engagement and business
development.
The themes of the fund are:

User generated content and social media
Harnessing the power of the internet and social media to reach audiences and
to give them a platform for discussion, participation and creativity.

Digital distribution and exhibition
Using digital technologies to deliver artistic experiences and content in new
ways in online and place based environments, including exploring
international distribution and exhibition.
15

Mobile, location and games
Developing a new generation of mobile and location-based experiences and
services, including games.

Data and archives
Making archives, collections and other data more widely available to other
arts organisations and the general public.

Resources
Using digital technologies to improve the way in which arts organisations are
run including business efficiency and income generation and the way in which
they collaborate with each other.

Education and learning
Developing interactive education and learning resources for children,
teachers, young people, adult learners and arts sector professionals.
The fund will build on the pilot programme to achieve a step change in the innovative
use of digital technologies by the arts and cultural sector in England. It is unique in
marrying cultural organisations with researchers and technology companies to test
innovation propositions and support the dissemination of the learning.
Creative media infrastructure programme (2013- 2015)
During 2012/13, we will be working with key partners including the National Archives,
BFI and others to support a more coordinated approach to creative media
infrastructure. We will identify how best to deploy the remainder of our £2.5 million
strategic funding to address:
 intellectual property and rights support
 archiving skills and support
 data, meta-data infrastructure support for arts content
This funding will not be available until autumn 2013.
Other Arts Council investment to support creative media
Grants for the arts
Grants for the arts is our open-access, year-round lottery funding scheme. Through
the scheme we fund a range of activities that support the creative media policy
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including: skills and talent development, media production, distribution, exhibition,
clearance of intellectual property rights costs within the production of a work,
audience development and marketing activity, and archive projects which can
demonstrate public access and benefit.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/grants-for-the-arts
Strategic touring
The £45 million Strategic touring programme was launched in 2011 and is designed
to encourage collaboration between organisations, so that more people across
England experience and are inspired by the arts, particularly in places which rely on
touring for much of their arts provision. The Strategic touring fund will accept
applications for place-based digital exhibition that support the aim of engaging
audiences in areas with limited arts provision.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/grantprogrammes/strategic-touring-programme
Creative people and places
The Creative people and places fund will focus our investment in parts of the country
where people’s involvement in the arts is significantly below the national average,
with the aim of increasing the likelihood of participation. This may include creative
media activity from arts and cultural organisations to engage local communities in
new and different approaches to participation.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/commissionedgrants/creative-people-and-places-fund
Audience focus
The fund, which launched in November 2011, aims to achieve the Arts Council's goal
of encouraging more people to attend and participate in the arts by helping arts
organisations better understand, retain and expand their audiences including digital
engagement. The Understanding audiences strand of the fund has resulted in an
award of £3,268,000 over three years to Audiences Plus, a consortium of specialist
audience development agencies led by All About Audiences and Audiences London.
This new national consortium, based in Manchester and London, will provide 1:1
support to organisations, as well as a number of innovative new tools and resources
to help them better understand their current and potential audiences. These will
include a national database of arts attendees, an online audience analytics system
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and a DIY audience focus toolkit. This supports the creative media policy by giving
organisations better digital tools to understand and develop their audiences.
A further round of funding will be open in autumn 2012.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/commissionedgrants/audience-focus
Capital funding
Our £214.6 million capital investment programme including our small scale capital
fund will support organisations to develop resilience by giving them the right
buildings, equipment and technology infrastructure to deliver their work. Some
businesses are looking at expanding digital resources within their buildings and
funding can also support capital equipment to produce and distribute creative media.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/grant
programmes/capital
Renaissance
Renaissance is the Arts Council's £43 million investment in the development of
regional museums between 2012 and 2015. The Renaissance strategic support fund
is a programme strand of Renaissance to be developed and aims to address the
priorities set out in Culture, knowledge and understanding and complement our
Major partner museum and Museum development investment. It will focus on any
gaps (geographical or otherwise) or development opportunities across the sector
recognising that excellence and the potential for excellence can be found in
museums of all sizes. This can include digital development and support for the
creation and distribution of creative media.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/renaissance
Other sources of creative media funding and support
Heritage Lottery Fund
From 1 July 2012, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has made changes to their policy
on digital projects and has introduced new requirements for digital outputs produced
with HLF funding as part of a project. This means that they now fund a stand-alone
digital project provided it meets the aims and criteria of the grant applied for. All
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projects must meet a strategic aim for learning: ‘to help people learn about their own
and other people’s heritage.’ They state that ‘we are using the term digital output to
cover anything you create in your project in a digital format which is designed to give
access to heritage or to help people engage with heritage eg a website, a set of
digital images, an online exhibition or a smart phone app.’ 10
www.hlf.org.uk/digitalpolicyandrequirements
The National Archives
As archive sector leaders, The National Archives provides support for archives
across the public and private sectors: for local government, universities, libraries and
museums, and other publicly-funded organisations; for businesses, charities and
other private or commercial institutions.
Advice and guidance is available on the collecting, management and preservation of
archives in all media and on all formats and on engaging with new and diverse
audiences and exploring potential for improving access to collections with case
studies providing practical examples of experiences from across the archive sector.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector
10
Thinking about… Using digital technology in heritage projects, Heritage Lottery Fund, 2011, p6
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Appendix 1 - Definitions
Our Creative media policy aims to:
Support an increase in the quality, volume and reach of digital content and
experiences from the arts and cultural sector to support artistic, economic and
audience development and growth.
Creative media as a term has been traditionally used to describe the creative media
and digital content industries producing creative content11 including those
companies working in film, television, radio, interactive content, electronic publishing,
software and computer games.
The Arts Council’s use of the term ‘creative media’ refers to
artistic and cultural works and content that are created for digital platforms
and/or distributed digitally to engage the public.
Creative media encompasses all artforms (including dance, literature, music, theatre,
visual arts, and combined arts) and emerging and innovative hybrid practices that
work across boundaries and disciplines. It also refers to creative media produced by
people within the arts, museums and library sectors.
There are broadly three creative media content areas:
1. ‘Born digital’ work native to and created for the digital space
Art and cultural works and arts practice in which digital technologies and
media are an integral part of the creation of the artwork/experience - eg artists
film and video, digital arts, participatory and interactive media, augmented
reality games, pervasive and transmedia storytelling
2. Mediation of existing art and cultural works
‘Made digital’ activity that can include the digitisation, adaptation, re-staging or
extension of a primary/existing, usually place-based art or cultural work such
as play or art collection into new kinds of online, film, broadcast, video or
interactive media content and experiences that can be distributed digitally.
3. Arts and cultural reflection – supporting learning and critical context
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Ibid, Skillset, p8
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‘Made digital’ activity that can include critical commentary, cultural journalism,
and learning content that may contextualise or reflect on aspects of arts and
culture. This can include coverage of events and discussions with artists,
specialists and curators about their work. It can involve creative approaches
to production and publishing including arts documentaries and podcasts which
incorporate art works and collections within a broader editorial context
Creative media encompasses the Arts Council’s policy responsibilities for artists’ film
and video, arts broadcasting and digital arts that were agreed with the DCMS and
the UK Film Council in 2000. Key definitions for these terms outlined in Film in
England (UK Film Council, 2000) are:
Arts broadcasting
Includes measures to encourage innovation in television, and covers broadband,
web-casting and other new distribution and transmission technologies; collaborative
partnerships between different artforms and broadcast organisations, advocacy and
arts journalism and television schemes designed to showcase other art forms and
radio.
Artists’ film and video
Includes moving-image based work that relates to fine art practice, including gallerybased work, experimental film and animation, artists’ video and work with new
technologies. It should cover related broadcast and narrowcast schemes, production
and resources to support it, such as workshops, managed workspaces, production
facilities, distribution and associated activities such as education and training.
Digital arts
Includes support of production, distribution of moving and still images by artists
across the spectrum of new media including on-line broadcasting and other new
distribution and transmission technologies and multi-media developments.
Please note that the BFI and the Arts Council will be reviewing and updating
areas of policy responsibility above. We will be announcing a new partnership
with the BFI in autumn 2012.
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