Arts Council England’s response to the
consultation on the European Commission’s
proposal for a Creative Europe Programme
Arts Council England is the lead body charged with developing the arts, museums
and libraries in England. Our mission is Great art for everyone. We aim to do this
by championing, developing and investing in artistic and cultural experiences that
enrich people’s lives.
Many UK artists, arts and culture organisations are internationally renowned for
their excellence and leadership and provide a destination for European and
international visitors. Opportunities which facilitate partnerships across national
boundaries can encourage the valuable exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas
as well as expand audiences.
Responses to the Consultation questions
1. What benefit has the current Culture/MEDIA/MEDIA Mundus programme
brought to your organisation/sector?
Over the last decade, UK arts organisations have had a high success rate with
applications to the Culture programme. Visiting Arts, the UK Cultural Contact
Point, cite that in 2010/11 the UK had the ‘highest number of successful projects of
any applicant country in the most popular strand’. EU Culture funding has
encouraged trans-national collaboration for cultural institutions, opportunities for
artists to travel, and wider distribution of exhibitions, performances and festivals.
Culture Programme funding has had a particular focus on young people, diversity
and hard to reach communities which all have a direct synergy with the goals in
Arts Council England’s 10-year strategic framework Achieving great art for
everyone
We hope that the new programme will encourage more partnerships between
museums and libraries also, to encourage more ambitious programming and the
sharing of knowledge, skills and research.
2. Is there still a need for EU action in the cultural and creative sectors? If so,
why?
There are still many important opportunities for growth within the European cultural
sector and a dedicated programme helps to facilitate the fruitful partnerships which
will deliver this growth. The UK has many exemplar cultural organisations and arts
leaders who could play an influential role in trans-national collaboration. In addition
there are many innovative arts and culture institutions and examples of cultural
practice in Europe which the UK sector could learn from through partnership
working.
Recent reports looking at the Creative and Cultural industries workforce have
suggested that the sector has been fairly resilient in the economic downturn.
However, there is also recognition that there are concerted efforts by many of the
fast growing international economies (including China) to invest in their own
creative and cultural industries, meaning that the UK and Europe are at greater
risk of falling behind on the international stage. In this context the opportunity of
partnership and funding via Creative Europe is a vital opportunity for the sector to
secure growth across Europe.
3. What would be the impact if there were no EU programmes for the cultural
and creative sectors?
Opportunities for the cultural and creative sectors are limited within Structural
Funds. Cultural organisations rarely have the capacity to access funding which is
often complex and of significant scale. Specific funding for cultural activity is a vital
mechanism to encourage UK cultural exchange and the development of
creative/commercial activity for UK Creative Industries. Following on from the
unique international focus on the UK provided by the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the
cultural and creative sector have an excellent opportunity to take their work to new
markets and form new partnerships. Creative Europe funding should enable this
strategic development.
4. Do you agree that the three current programmes should be replaced by a
single programme with separate Cross-sectoral, Culture and Media strands?
What do you see as the benefits and/or disadvantages of this approach?
The merging of the three current programmes is positive and reflects the reality of
most UK arts organisations who now take a cross-sector approach to creativity,
new technology and business. Arts Council England is committed to promoting an
enterprising and mixed economy model within its National portfolio and the
Creative Europe programme should encourage this within the context of the wider
employment objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy for jobs and smart,
sustainable and inclusive growth.
In particular the potential for the European Investment Fund’s financial guarantee
facility could make it easier for small and medium enterprises within the UK
Creative Industries to access bank loans; and funding to support studies, analysis
and better data collection to improve the evidence base for policy-making should
help to encourage our universities and policy makers to work more effectively with
the cultural sector.
The Arts Council now has a wider responsibility to work with excellent museums
and libraries and in this respect the convergence of arts, creative industries,
heritage and education is positive within the Creative Europe programme,
providing an opportunity for institutions to collaborate beyond their normal sectors
on an international basis.
5. Does the proposed programme provide an appropriate framework for the
kind of actions which would most benefit your organisation/sector and add
value? If not, how should the framework be changed in order to maximise
the benefits and added value?
The Government states that EU programmes supporting research and innovation
should be simple to access, flexible to use and provide value for money. By
bringing the three funding programmes together, Creative Europe should provide a
more streamlined approach, with better opportunity to compare and analyse
performance.
European added value (Article 3)
6. Does the proposal identify the right means of ensuring added value? Are
there any others that should be added?
Creative Europe has the potential to offer a simplified and unified approach to EU
culture funding. The direct link to the ‘Europe 2020’ economic strategy may be
challenging for some. However, responding to this challenge and demonstrating
the added value which creative industries can play within the wider European
economy should ensure that culture has an important role in EU growth, cohesion,
education and employment.
The programme should continue to be mindful of the continued societal and
cultural value that international cultural exchange and partnership brings.
Programme objectives (Articles 4-5)
7. Does the proposal identify the right general objectives for the
programme? Are there any others that should be added?
There is a slight risk that cultural organisations could be marginalised against
digital and technology industries. However, the indicative budget proposal of 30
per cent for Culture is significant and should provide opportunity for the sector to
grow. The proposal for 15 per cent for the cross-sectoral strand is welcome and
positively reflects the blurring of boundaries between different artistic practices.
There is an indication that bi-lateral and non EU countries may participate in the
programme but there could be a strategic argument for the scheme to specifically
encourage greater collaboration with the BRIC countries, where cultural exchange
could be an excellent way to foster greater international collaboration, partnership
and trade.
8. Does the proposal identify the right specific objectives for the
programme? Are there any others that should be added?
The main objectives (transnational relationships, circulation of artworks,
strengthening financial capacity and development of transnational policy and
business models) are welcome but understandably generic within such a broad
funding programme. The proposals would be strengthened with a greater
articulation of the need to engage diverse and hard to reach communities, and
children and young people with culture.
The recognition that all parties should work harder to ensure that a wider section of
the population have access to culture has underpinned Arts Council’s 10-year
strategic framework Achieving great art for everyone. Within the Creative Europe
proposals the unique capacity of culture to inspire, educate and unite European
communities needs to be brought into the foreground.
Cross-sectoral strand (Articles 7-8)
9. Do you agree with the proposal for a new financial facility for small and
medium-sized enterprises and organisations in the cultural and creative
sectors?
It is positive to see a loan facility proposed alongside a range of grant funded
opportunities. This may have an advantage over grant making in that loans could
foster longer term business planning and budget forecasting from emerging
cultural and creative industries.
10. What would be the benefit of such a financial facility to your
organisation/sector?
Cultural and creative sectors share a range of challenges which the Creative
Europe proposals cite as ‘a highly fragmented market context... the impact of the
digital shift and difficulties in accessing finance’. The proposed new financial
facility which goes beyond a culture of project-based grants, encourages an
entrepreneurial approach. There are strong indicators that economic growth will be
led by SMEs so it is welcome that new ways for them to access finance are being
addressed.
11. Would such a financial facility be of greater benefit to some sub-sectors
than others? If so, which sub-sectors would be likely to benefit more from
the facility and which less, and why?
It seems probable that cultural enterprises which operate within the digital sphere
may be more alert to this type of financial practice. In addition, a number of
universities are promoting opportunities for graduate creative businesses to
develop from their courses. Therefore universities may have a good opportunity,
with their wider experience of EU funding and strong international networks, to
drive activity within Creative Europe. Arts Council’s National portfolio of funded
organisations (NPOs) has strong links with Universities and could work in
partnership to access EU support.
12. Is there a risk that such a financial facility could create market
distortions? If so, why, and how could the impact on the market be
mitigated?
The creative industries have large growth potential. An EU Member States survey
in early 2010 found that more than 97 per cent of respondents thought the creative
industries were ‘important’ or ‘very important’ in supporting innovative activities,
encouraging economic growth and creating new jobs (The European
Competitiveness Report 2010). Creative Industries can drive up entrepreneurial
business start up and meet the challenges around the digital shift. Compared to
commercial industries the financial facility should not affect significant market
distortion for creative industries which are focussed on innovation and international
partnership between arts, culture, business and technology.
13. What level/proportion of the financial allocation for the programme
should be allocated to such a financial facility?
Within the Media strand, there seems to be a good case for a proportion of the
funding to be used as loans to support emerging creative industries and new
technologies. The digital shift and opportunities for digital dissemination of cultural
content presents a huge opportunity in Europe and it is important that Creative
Industries can access finance to enable them to increase competitiveness and
respond quickly. The scheme would be most effective if the process for accessing
the financial facility could be streamlined to make it as responsive as possible. The
long timescales for applying into EU grant processes are a disincentive and can be
unworkable for some types of projects.
14. Do you agree with the proposed support measures for transnational cooperation? Are there any other measures which should be included?
The recent HM Government report: Lets Choose Growth: Why we need reform to
unlock Europe’s potential, promotes the idea of ‘unleashing the single market’ and
argues that reduced barriers to trade between Europe and other markets could
gain 5.5 million jobs.
Transnational co-operation is just as vital for the cultural sector and creative
industries however it is often hard to map where activity is taking place. There is
potential for Creative Europe to better communicate how its funding is enabling
partnership between European countries and the wider international world.
15. Do you agree with the proposed tasks of the Creative Europe Desks’
network? Are there any other tasks which should be included?
It is positive to see the support for a network of Creative Europe Desks to promote
the Creative Europe Programme at national level. This should encourage more
engagement from the sector and also ensure that policy and best practice is
shared between professionals, institutions and networks in the cultural and
creative sectors in the Member States.
Culture strand (Articles 9-10)
16. Does the proposal identify the right priorities for the culture strand? Are
there any others that should be added?
A number of priorities add value to Arts Council England’s 10-year strategy
including: transnational exchange, peer-learning activities and networking among
cultural operators and policy makers.
A range of Culture strand priorities propose areas of work which are largely
outside of the scope of Arts Council’s immediate priorities but are welcome
including: tools for skills and jobs, and support for statistical surveys and analysis
in the cultural and creative sectors.
Opportunities for individuals and small and medium enterprises can be overlooked
within large scale funding programmes so it is encouraging to see that the Culture
strand will support professional cooperation and funding to ‘internationalise
careers’ which could be particularly useful for cultural workers and small and
medium enterprises in isolated regions. This complements the Arts Council and
British Council’s Artists’ International Development Fund.
The priorities also have a strong synergy with Arts Council’s funding of
international touring, events and exhibitions, and supporting audience
development and engagement.
While the priorities mention ‘testing new approaches to audience building and
business’, there seems potential to be more explicit about the need for Creative
Europe to fund projects and programmes which engage children and young
people, diverse and hard to reach communities.
17. Does the proposal identify the right support measures for the culture
strand? Are there any others that should be added?
A number of these measures such as cross-sectoral initiatives and support to
networks are familiar from the previous Culture Programme however the
commitment towards ‘European platforms for the development of emerging talent’
is welcome. The commitment to a systemic approach should enable better
coordination across a range of cultural activities which have previously been
complex and problematic with EU culture funding.
Media strand (Articles 11-12)
18. Does the proposal identify the right priorities for the media strand? Are
there any others that should be added?
The Arts Council has recently launched a partnership with the BBC called The
Space – an experimental digital arts media service and commissioning programme
that could help to transform the way people connect with, and experience, arts and
culture. The Space provides a distribution platform for cultural organisations which
create excellent digital content. Through this and other funding programmes, we
are supporting organisations to develop their digital capacity. As this capacity
increases, we hope that UK organisations will be able to access the media strand
in order to access a wider audience and international market
Third countries (Article 16)
22. Is it appropriate to allow access to the programme to non-EU countries
on the terms set out in this Article?
This seems a welcome and necessary development to encourage greater
distribution of cultural products and access to new markets beyond the EU, and
could enable the Arts Council and our National portfolio, and other arts and culture
organisations to develop long term strategic partnerships.
Arts Council England has ambitions for the arts and culture organisations it funds
to show leadership on an international basis beyond Europe. Currently a range of
transnational partnerships with the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and
China) are under development and in this context the potential for non member
states to access funding should also provide a wider range of opportunities for UK
culture organisations.
Final comments
24. Do you have any other comments on the Commission’s proposal?
Cultural and Creative Industries are a huge asset and EU studies have indicated
that they account for around 4.5% per cent of EU GDP and 3.8 per cent of
employment (or 8.5 million jobs). UK artists and arts and culture organisations are
at the forefront of many cultural and creative sub-sectors and have real potential
for economic growth and network leadership in Europe. Arts Council England’s
recent partnership with the British Council to create the Artists International
Development Fund is a strong example of strategic commitment to encourage
artists to internationalise their practice.
The proposal to refresh EU cultural funding is timely. Arts Council England has
recently restructured its national portfolio of regularly funded organisations, and
launched its new Renaissance programme alongside a range of strategic funding
programmes that will sustain and develop arts and culture organisations in
England. In this context, the opportunity to improve competitiveness for cultural
and creative industries in England presents a significant growth opportunity.
Creative Europe should enable transnational exports, new international
partnerships and commercial innovation through access to significant grant
funding and loans via the proposed Financial Facility.
The simplification of the current Culture, MEDIA and MEDIA Mundus programmes
into one scheme is positive and the commitment that Creative Europe must
contribute to the economic drivers of the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy is particularly
welcome to ensure that the economic potential of cultural and creative industries is
recognised and realised both within England and Europe.