Arts Council England outlines how it sees villages, towns and cities across the country thriving through a collaborative approach to culture.
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… we have worked with….(DCMS) to identify 109 local authority areas, all outside of Greater London…
Arts Council England writes:
We know that historically our investment in some areas of England has been too low, so we’ve set out lists of Levelling Up for Culture Places and Priority Places that we’ll prioritise working with.
Below you can find out how we’ll work with them, the differences between them, and how we selected the places.
Priority Places 2021-24
What are they?
As part of our Delivery Plan for 2021-24, we identified 54 places across England in which our investment and engagement is too low, and opportunity for us to effectively increase investment and engagement is high – and so we’re prioritising working with them from 2021 to 2024.
In every one of our Priority Places we will work with local stakeholders to set bespoke objectives, hold ourselves accountable for increasing staff time and investment across a range of funds, and track the impact of our investment.
All of our Priority Places outside of London are also found on the list of Levelling Up for Culture Places (below). We remain committed to increasing staff time and investment in our Priority Places within London. When considering our National Portfolio and Investment Principles Support Organisations (NPOs and IPSOs) investment in London, for example, we’ll take into account applications that relate to organisations and activity in the five London Priority Places….
Levelling Up for Culture Places 2022-26
What are they?
In its Levelling Up White Paper, the government commits to:
“Identifying over 100 levelling up priority places outside of London that will be the focus for additional Arts Council England engagement and investment.”
To deliver this commitment, we have worked with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to identify 109 local authority areas, all outside of Greater London. We are calling these Levelling Up for Culture Places.
As set out by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, all of the £43.5 million of additional investment we’ll receive from the Government for the period 2022-25 will benefit creativity and culture outside of London, and where possible in a way that benefits the 109 Levelling Up for Culture Places.
In our 2023-26 Investment Programme, Levelling Up for Culture Places will be added to our balancing criteria. This means in our funding decisions we’ll take account of applications that are for uplifts for existing National Portfolio Organisations in Levelling Up for Culture Places, from new NPOs and IPSOs in Levelling Up for Culture Places, and for new activity in Levelling Up for Culture Places delivered by organisations outside of those Places but designed in partnership with them.
There’s no guarantee however that every place on the list will receive additional investment, as this will be subject to our receiving strong applications for funding and having sufficient budget available to support those applications.
The 109 Levelling Up for Culture Places include all of the Arts Council’s Priority Places that are outside of Greater London….
What if we’re not in a Priority Place or Levelling Up for Culture Place?
The balancing criteria for our 2023-26 Investment Programme includes investing in new activity in Levelling Up for Culture Places which is delivered by National Portfolio Organisations outside those Places but working in partnership with those Places.
Priority Places and Levelling Up for Culture Places are also just one of three ways in which we’re committed to strengthening cultural and creative opportunities and ensuring they have a deep and lasting effect on places and the people who live in them.
As well as funding programmes open to cultural organisations and creative individuals wherever they’re based in England, such as National Lottery Project Grants and?Developing your Creative Practice, we also deliver nationwide programmes such as?Music Education Hubs?to ensure every child in England has access to music education.
Alongside this, we’ll continue to work with specific places not identified as priority places, through programmes such as?Creative People & Places, UK City of Culture and our new Place Partnership Fund.
