Arts Council England museum briefings: questions raised and
answers
Questions about the delivery of Arts Council England’s strategy and Culture,
knowledge and understanding: great museums and libraries for everyone
1. Q: In goal 1 (excellence is thriving and celebrated in museums and
libraries), when Arts Council England talks about the importance of
cross-cultural partnerships, does it include international partnerships in
its thinking as well as national, regional and local partnerships?
A: The Arts Council is keen for museums and libraries to expand their horizons
and be imaginative and ambitious in doing so; this will mean different things for
different museums, and in some cases, international partnerships, which bring
new collections and insights to communities, will be a natural step.
2. Q: In goal 2 (more people experience and are inspired by museums and
libraries), will Arts Council England maintain the emphasis on placebased working that MLA had developed?
A: We recognise that place-based working is important to museums and that
they provide important civic spaces within towns and cities. Our participation
goal embraces museums’ role in generating tourism and attracting visitors as
well as in engaging communities, and we want to build on the role that they play
at the heart of communities.
3. Q: In goal 4 (the leadership and workforce are diverse and highly skilled),
will Arts Council England work with museums on governance?
A: Feedback from our briefing sessions has highlighted that museums see
governance as a pressing issue both as they explore new models and also in a
longstanding difficulty some have in recruiting good trustees. As a result, we will
prioritise this subject to explore with funding recipients. The new Accreditation
standard, which will be launched this autumn, also has a clear focus on
governance as an essential part of the health of an organisation.
4. Q. The guidance says that proposals will be judged across the five goals
with an emphasis on one (excellence) and three (sustainability, resilience
and innovation). What if you choose goals that are not one and three?
A: Proposals will be set out under five headings based on the five goals.
Applicants will tell us how they are currently meeting our goals, what their plans
are for the future and how Renaissance funding will contribute to this process.
We expect all applicants to be delivering on all five goals; however, the
application proposals may only be directly addressing two or more goals. All
applications should involve a critical self assessment of where excellence has
been achieved, where change is needed and the nature of the journey involved
and how excellence can be embedded and made financially resilient. You will
also tell us how the investment will contribute to the wider sector and leverage
in support from other sources.
5. Q. What is Arts Council England’s approach to museums that charge for
entry? Does that conflict with any of your goals?
A: The Arts Council recognises that, as with arts organisations, museums exist
in a mixed economy and that some services charge for entry.
6. Q: What are Arts Council England s plans for the delivery of its workforce
development strategy in respect of museums?
A: Arts Council England tends to work through others in delivering goal 4 (the
leadership and workforce are diverse and highly skilled), and we look forward to
exploring the new partnerships our wider remit will bring. We have recently
supported Creative and Cultural Skills and National Skills Academy in a bid to
the Department for Business Innovation and Skills to expand their footprint to
cover museums.
7. Q: What role will the children and young people bridge organisations play
in respect of Arts Council England’s wider cultural footprint? Is it
appropriate for them to work across museums and libraries when they
were appointed in the context of an arts portfolio, not a wider portfolio of
funded museums and libraries?
A: In Culture, Knowledge and Understanding we set out our hope that the
bridge organisations will play a role in pioneering new relationships between
education, the arts, museums and libraries. We recognise that this group of
organisations was appointed in a different context and we will discuss with them
their appetite and capacity to play a wider role, adjusting our plans according to
the outcome of these discussions.
Renaissance major grants programme
8. Q: What’s the rationale for looking for applicants/consortia with
designated, multi-themed collections? What role is there for specialist
designated collections?
A: As we will fund a relatively small group of leadership museums, we want to
make sure they will hold expertise across a range of collections. While
individual museums may have leadership qualities we believe that it would be
difficult for a museum that only held, for example, fine art collections, or only
dealt with a single subject, to provide a credible leadership role in a part of the
country that had numerous and diverse museums.
Similarly, Renaissance aims to drive excellence and funded museums are
expected to carry out a wider leadership role in the sector; if we are to demand
excellence and leadership from funded museums then designated status is one
relevant measure of their capacity to contribute to achieving the goals of the
programme and to make a significant contribution to the health of the wider
sector.
Applicants to the major grants programme must have significant multi-themed
collections (e.g. more than one of archaeology, social history, fine art, geology,
natural history, military, transport, science etc), part of which should be
Designated. If applying as a consortium, at least one museum (not necessarily
the lead) must have at least part of its collection Designated and the museums
must between them have multi-themed collections.
Specialist museums with a single themed collection can form part of a
consortium for major grants, or they could choose instead to apply for strategic
funds or to contribute to subject specialist networks.
9. Q: Can a museum apply for the major grants programme if it has an
application for Accreditation or Designation in the system?
A: Applicants should be Accredited/Designated at the time of making the
application.
10. Q: How will Arts Council England measure the required 150k foot-fall?
A: We will ask museums to tell us the foot-fall (number of people who
visited their museums) in the last full year for which they have records. If
there are exceptional circumstances which make this figure atypical (for
example a museum site has been closed for refurbishment) we will ask for
an estimate of what expected foot-fall should be and the reasons for making
this
11. Q: How will you determine what constitutes a “multi-themed” collection?
A: Some museums are clearly single-themed such as fine art galleries, and
others are clearly multi-themed, such as museums that have for example art,
social history, and natural history collections. However, it is accepted that it will
be less easy to be precise with some museums. Any museum that chooses to
apply for major grant status needs to be aware that the Arts Council is seeking
to fund organisations or consortia that can demonstrate a range of collection
types and a range of collections expertise and this will need to be
demonstrated in their applications.
12. Q: Could you give us more guidance on what you want from consortia?
What’s your position on new and emerging partnerships? Can consortia
be formed through subject alignment as well as geographical proximity?
Are there limited numbers for the region?
A: In the Renaissance guidance we say that all partners in a consortium must
show a firm commitment to joint working and be committed to a meaningful and
appropriate governance structure to allow that.
Consortia can be closely linked geographically or through complementary
services or collections. Applications must show the benefits and rationale of
working as a partnership. If consortia applicants are successful, we may ask
them to provide us with a written partnership agreement.
The key things we are looking for are:
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that the consortia will be greater than the sum of its parts in its ability to
deliver benefits to users
that the partners to complement each other in terms of skills and collections
and expertise or geography
some evidence of prior partnership, shared leadership and governance, but
we will also accept proposed new consortia in exceptional cases for
example particularly strong and exciting proposals, on the basis that an
appropriate form of governance will be developed and in place to deliver the
partnership
that the application demonstrates how the consortia will deliver sector
needs.
As with all proposals, in the final mix of funded projects, geography will be used
as balancing criteria.
13. Q: If you apply as a consortium for a major grant, can one of the
museums within the consortium apply as an individual museum for
strategic support funds?
A: No, if you are in receipt of major grant funds, either as an individual museum
or as part of a consortium you can not apply for strategic support funds.
14. Q: Can you be a member of more than one consortium (that applies for
major grant funding) i.e. one museum may well be the subject of three
separate bids – as the bids may all cover slightly different things?
The guidance states (on page 7): ‘You cannot apply as both a single
organisation and as part of a consortium’. This does not prohibit you from
applying as a member of two or more consortia. However, as we will be looking
for a firm commitment to consortium membership with an alignment of current
business plans and forward vision we would not normally expect to see
museums appearing in multiple bids.
15. Q: Is onward transfer of funds acceptable when a museum has a loose
partnership that is not organised formally enough to apply as a
consortium?
A: Museums can transfer funds to partners but this arrangement must be
clearly agreed in the funding agreement, including any parameters e.g. we do
not endorse transfer of funds from one major grant recipient to another. The
risk would sit with the organisation we award funding to.
Whilst any formal consortium should include partners that are all accredited,
we would not expect that a partnership organisation must also be accredited,
in the same way we do not stipulate a certain standard for other suppliers.
16. Q: To what extent will Arts Council England use its overview to broker
relationships or adjust applicants’ plans following the review of
applications?
A: As with our NPO process any decision to offer funding will be subject to
discussing and finalising a detailed funding agreement. This process could
result in agreed changes to applicants’ planned activities and budgets and to
the level of award made.
17. Q: What do you mean by leadership? How will you be sure that the
smaller museums that the major grantees propose to lead will welcome
the leadership they are offering?
A: In the guidance we stipulate that the museum or consortia must demonstrate
a track record in strong, stable and effective governance, management,
leadership and partnership development, including cross-cultural partnerships.
Beyond this, we will leave it to the applicants to demonstrate how investing in
them will contribute to the wider sector and leverage in support from other
sources. We would expect to see evidence of applicants having consulted those
on whose behalf they would take a leadership role.
18. Q: What does “an appropriate distribution of leadership” mean in the
balancing criteria?
A: We are looking for a group of museums with the appetite and capacity to play
a major role in driving excellence in the museums sector. We will prioritise a
group of applicants that make imaginative proposals around wide-reaching,
empowering and inclusive leadership.
19. Q: Do you have the number of leading museums in mind?
A: Yes, while we don’t want to prejudge the proposals that will be submitted, we
expect to fund a slightly larger group than the 8-12 ‘core’ museums that MLA
proposed.
20. Q. What will happen to the group of funded museums after year three of
funding, will there be a new opportunity for others to apply or will it be a
closed shop?
A. The Arts Council hopes to have long term relationships with major grant
museums but as with arts funding, the overall picture will be reviewed on an
ongoing basis and we would anticipate changes in the future.
21. Q. Where do smaller museums fit into this new picture?
The Arts Council recognises the diverse ecology of museums across the
country. Our approach to Renaissance, based on contributing to our strategic
goals, aims to reflect and to benefit all types of museums, whether it is through
the major grants programme, the strategic support fund or the funding put aside
for museums development.
Transitional funding will allow museum services to adapt their business models
for an effective future. This funding will encompass some or all of the following
elements:
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Redundancies for which Renaissance has accepted liability, as per the
schedules submitted to MLA in November 2010 (or schedules subsequently
approved by MLA) and not discharged in 2011-12
Conclusion of Stories of the World activity
Continuation of Museum Development provision until the new model is
launched in 2012-13
Other activities agreed with the Arts Council that the museum service will
undertake to help adapt business models or to explore alternative sources
of support
We will accept any redundancy liabilities up to 31st March 2013, for those
members of staff Renaissance has accepted liability for, as per the schedules
submitted to and agreed by MLA. However after this date, the Arts Council will
not accept any further redundancy liability for staff – either those who have
historically worked on Renaissance, or those who start a new post from 1st April
2012 onwards.
22. Q: Will the new relationship managers be assessing applications?
A: The new relationship managers will assess applications with the support of
the national specialist team and other subject relationship managers and
regional management teams.
23. Q: What are your plans for the transitional funding for exiting hub
museums?
A: The Arts Council is committed to supporting those museums who will exit
from a long-term relationship with Renaissance funding (ex-Hub museums that
do not become major grant recipients) during 2012-13. We would urge affected
museums not to make any quick or hasty decisions on changes to their
structure, and to discuss with us any difficulties this presents with other funding
partners. We will want to work with affected museums on a one to one basis to
help them manage these relationships. Transitional funding will be available to
allow them to explore alternative sources of support or adapt their business
plans. Sums awarded will be negotiated on a case by case basis and will be
less than the award received in 11/12. We will write to those museums involved
with further guidance in October 2011.
24. Q. Local Authorities in some parts of the country have been harder hit
than others. Can this be factored in so that there is a level playing field?
A: The aim of Renaissance is not to fill gaps in funding but to provide a strategic
approach to funding for, and to drive excellence in, regional museums. We
cannot prioritise local authorities that are suffering larger cuts, but we will
prioritise relationships with funders that share our vision for museums and the
wider cultural sector.
25. Q. Will funding for Renaissance be ring fenced after 2015?
A: Funding for the responsibilities that we have taken on from the MLA are
subject to a separate funding agreement for this period, 2012-15 and are ring
fenced. As for the future, that funding will be subject to further discussion with
DCMS but no decision has been made on integration or ring fencing and it is
much too early to speculate at this stage.
Renaissance strategic support fund
26. Q: Will the fund target geographical gaps or strategic gaps?
A: It is not an either or situation. The fund will be designed to complement the
major grants programme, so it will depend on the “gaps” left by the major
grantees. We anticipate that the strategic fund will be used primarily to address
any of our goal and priority areas not covered by the major grantees, rather
than to address a geographical imbalance but this could include reaching more
people in key parts of the country with limited access to high quality museum
services.
27. Q: When will you provide further details about your plans and launch this
fund?
A: In spring 2012.
28. Q: If you apply for major grant funding and are unsuccessful, can you
still apply for strategic support funds?
Yes, whilst the details of the Renaissance strategic support fund are still to be
worked through and announced, we can confirm that an award of a major
grant would prohibit you from applying to this fund, but applying for it and
being unsuccessful would not.
Renaissance museum development
29. Q: There are redundancy implications of putting off the changes to
museum development. Can you provide any further clarity about the
timetable for decision-making related to museum development?
A: We will start to implement our museum development plans early in 2012, to
take effect in spring 2012. We are taking a strategic approach to funding
museums and identifying major grantees first. This is important if we are to
make sure that we get the overall approach right. Those interested in providing
museum development are invited to make this clear in their major grant
applications.
It is important that we get this process right. That is why we will work with
museums on a one to one basis on transition funding, including those currently
hosting existing Museum Development Officers, to ensure that no hasty
redundancy notices are issued.
Renaissance national programmes
30. Q: Will the Arts Council see through the delivery of the 2012 projects?
Should those museum services involved in Stories of the World include
these plans in their major grant bids, or what is the mechanism by which
exiting hub museums can see through their Stories of the World projects?
A: If applicants are currently undertaking 2012 projects we expect to see the
completion of these included in applications. Those museums exiting from a
long-term relationship with Renaissance funding would have their 2012 projects
taken into account when we consider transition funding.
Other
31. Q: I haven’t had any contact with the new team at Arts Council England.
How can I be sure that I’m on the Arts Council England radar?
A: The people we have recruited to deliver the museums and libraries functions
started at Arts Council England until October 3. If you want to get in touch with
us now you can email museums.libraries@artscouncil.org.uk.
32. Q. Won’t the major grants programme just lead to increased levels of
bureaucracy and reporting for museums, inhibiting innovation and
entrepreneurial aims?
A: One of Arts Council England’s strategic goals for museums is to drive
innovation, including business models, through Renaissance. We will aim to
keep reporting levels reasonable and useful.
33. Q. If planned capital investment comes under the generic term of ‘art’, how will
this sit with any proposals for a capital funding stream?
A. The Arts Council will provide details of any relevant funding scheme as they
become available.
34. Q: Is the Arts Council going to change its name?
A: We have no current plans to change our name. At this time we think there is
a need to balance continuity and change - and we can ensure that we place
museums and libraries at the heart of our work and our organisation without
changing our name. A change of name would be a complicated and costly
exercise that would not provide good value for the public purse at this time.