Difficult Roads often lead to Beautiful Destinations

Cogs are turning albeit slowly. So I thought I would share some insights into my experience of setting up and sustaining an independent business.

British Art has been rocked to the core and is still suffering lag from the effects of Austerity Britain. So what possessed me, to go independently seeking financial support for other people’s art?

For the record I have an excellent relationship with my current clients. Even so, the reality is that I have very little in the way of a safety net, or tangible investment. My every move is laced with inherent risk. As tactical as you can be, there will always be illusive unpaid invoices, which you chase into the sunset, clients who never confirm and projects with ever shifting goal posts. I’m privileged to be my own boss, in what I believe in. But it’s not for the faint hearted.

News of the financial crash broke in 2008 while I was working as an Education Officer for an Arts Centre in Berkshire. I had graduated with a degree Arts Event Management from the Arts University Bournemouth in 2007.

I realised that I was unlikely to achieve a step forward in my career by targeting arts centre jobs, where there is little mobility. RFOs or Regularly Funded Organisations, would start to loose their funding over a matter of years, including ourselves.

I started to think about designing a business I could run independently, centring on my strongest abilities for communication, networking, creative writing, strategy and evaluation. My business model would also need to be flexible enough to allow for my own professional development, since just like everyone else, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

The biggest challenge I face is convincing newcomers of my abilities. So I offer free consultations, which opens conversations with new clients. This is usually enough to know if we will be able to work together. I give my advice freely, because success breeds and I have confidence in the added value I can provide to a developing project. A strong project will almost incubate itself, without need for constant recycling.

I have learned not to take on anything that I'm not very confident in. Producing live art shows requires a delicate blend of input, timing, confidence and context.

At these early stages I’m feeding myself as much as my clients.  Each new project gives me fresh, hands-on, experience. Market research is invaluable but true knowledge is hard to fake. At the moment the process teaches me what working hours to attribute to each job.

My one-woman empire requires 100% personal input. It would be a huge challenge to freelance in anything I did not genuinely enjoy. Yet I become careworn and frustrated by it. The biggest downer is the stop / start cash flow of being a start up. I take a break when I get mixed up. It's foolish to believe that because you have chosen your own professional path, that every day will be a pleasure. In fact it's much harder to discern when to stop, because there is no clocking off point.

I take risks. I make difficult decisions. I actively persuade others into and out of strategic business decisions. My income is irregular. My service is myself. If I get sick, disillusioned, confused or overwhelmed, then that is entirely my own problem. There's no training programme. There's no hard evidence yet. But so far I love it, because I can see the potential in myself that I see in my clients. It’s a two way street. I negotiate new territory every day. What excites me the most is I’m driving new work.

Art is a comment on social change. Live art is a provocation. This way I know that I am at the front creative arts movement. Living on the edge, building new platforms for expression. It’s not up to me which will gain strength and which will be forgotten. By a selective process of tuning in and broadcast, I hope our activities will give the future of British Art, more chance and more choice.

How to get Funding from Arts Council England

The Arts Council England has undergone a streamlining process, in order to cut costs. Since July 2013 the internal processes for decision-making have changed. Reports of exactly what these changes are remain vague.

This is my interpretation of the current climate for applying for ACE funding.

Twenty one per cent of staff has been cut to save administration costs. Remaining staff will be soaking up an extra share of existing work. Where possible, offices have been relocated to save rent.

‘Small grants’, which were previously limited to £10,000 or less, have been increased to a maximum of £15,000. Presumably to minimize the cost of administration. However this presents a timely advantage for recipients considering the rising costs of producing work.

The effect of extensive cuts to ACE funding has been pinching since early 2010 and changes to the geography of publicly funded art, are still taking shape.

The key aims of ACE remain the same. Stemming from the critical aim to Achieve Great Art for Everyone. On it’s own, this is a very broad statement. It does in fact a sum up a deep appreciation and will, to bring the best of profound, visionary and ground-breaking work into the public realm.

This demands a knowledge and understanding of the current, yet ever-changing, creative landscape. As well as the movements within art, which have led to this point. Just as a writer cannot remain current, without reading the work of others. Or that a journalist could not hope work in isolation. Art reports from a thinking mind. It stems from an idea. Ideas could not exist without inspiration and cannot grow without nourishment. Thus to succeed in convincing the decision makers at ACE, in the validity of your work, you must have more than just an important idea. You must also deeply understand and be able to express the context of your idea existing here and now. Plus it’s relationship to the wider world. Yet encapsulate that within application guidelines. All of which is pretty challenging!

The fact that the Arts Council remains the UK’s largest and most recognized funding body for artists, means that is also subject to submissions from a huge number of applicants, many of which may have only a limited relationship with the contemporary creative climate.

If there were more funds available, more work could be supported and this would undoubtedly be positive for practitioners, wider society and other artists. Unfortunately there will always be limitations. When these are so extensive and unavoidable, we must all work even harder to overcome them.

ACE acts as gatekeeper for much needed financial support for emerging art. It is a vital resource, which makes difficult decisions about public money. My biggest criticism would be the lack of transparent feedback in plain English.

Unfortunately direct feedback translates into the expense of paid staff hours and sadly a less than vital priority at this time.

It becomes necessary then for applicants to be fluent in Arts Council jargon and to understand the cultural territory that ACE inhabits, in order to successfully communicate your ideas in a way that will meet the requirements and is competitive against a nation of other applicants.

This of course represents a drain on the already limited working hours available to applicants.

It’s my aim that by working at a consultancy level, I can act as a useful and supportive resource and a portal to the right information to aid this process.

This is something I intend to do with Liberty Rocks:

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To shine a light on the most interesting and influential contemporary arts events taking place.

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Demystify the process of fundraising for the arts.

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Mentor and support emerging artists with information, influential connections and critical evaluation.

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To do this I provide management services for individual artists and I act as a mission control hub for collaborating artists.

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I also report and feedback on my experience of the current creative climate, for others to receive and share.

So please, if you are interested in producing your own work or working with others, keep a close eye on the blog. Share and discuss your thoughts and certainly keep me informed of your own work and activities.