Funding your practice
Penny Harris looks at what funding is available to artists, and how to apply for it
Penny Harris looks at what funding is available to artists, and how to apply for it
The career of an artist involves not only creating work, but running a business to generate income and fuel that production. This might be obvious, but it is often overlooked. To help you navigate the finances of being an artist, here are the do’s and don’ts of funding your practice.
DO: Diversify your streams of income
Let me start by saying this: it is wise to have several income streams. The pandemic has highlighted a need to diversify. Diversification is a way of spreading your risk. As a result, you’ll have eggs in several baskets and you won’t be so reliant on one particular way to fund your work. For instance, artists who relied totally on gallery exhibitions (which sell in person to the public), most of which were cancelled at very short notice during the pandemic, found themselves either having to find alternative and creative ways of selling their work online, or to make money in other ways. And, believe me, it isn’t something that you want to have to set up in a hurry! A few other ways for artists to make money include selling work online, creating multiples, prints, or editions that might sell for lower prices (possibly attracting new audiences). Or – definitely a result of the lockdown – online workshops, either one-on-one, or classes.
All of these are worth investigating.
DON’T: Be afraid of public funding
Some artists’ practices lend themselves naturally to public funding. Large community engagement projects – like those delivered by Mary Branson, in our case study, right – would be difficult to fund other than via Arts Council England, or an arts commissioning agency.
But what always surprises me is how few artists even consider public funding for their practice or projects. Often, artists are put off, or intimidated by public funding. However, there is nothing to be afraid of! Arts Council England is there to help you. So why not consider them to fund your projects?
As well as extensive Project Grants, Arts Council England has non-project based funds such as the DYCP – Developing Your Creative Practice. So, what does DYCP do? Quite a lot! It is a fund specifically for research and development and is open to all individual artists or practitioners. It aims to help artists take their practice to the next stage, affording them time to network, develop, travel, make new work, upskill, have mentoring, or develop ideas. There are also other national grant-making bodies listed on ACE’s website, so have a scroll through these as well.
DO: Research and network
Local trusts and foundations can also be an important source of funds. So how do you get to know about them? No surprises here: the key is to do your homework, and networking. Most, but sadly not all, councils will have an arts officer. Again, they are there to help you. Look at what is happening locally – it won’t actually take much digging to discover what’s going on. Attend everything you possibly can and get to know who is involved. You will soon be able to work out who is active locally, who is funding, and then work out how you can fit in.
Most of the projects that get funding are collaborations. Identify individuals, organisations or venues that you might want to work with, and start conversations with them. Have an idea or an outline, not a fully resolved project, so it can grow into something that is owned by all collaborating parties. The stronger the support you have for your project, the more compelling the case will be for funding.
DO: Prepare your proposals
We support many Arts Council England applications at Parker Harris and our advice is always to start with the budget. Dreary work, sometimes, but very important! So many artists have fabulous projects but they’re so ambitious that they are never going to squeeze into the funding available. In an attempt to get every element into the project, they spread the ideas too thin. So, our advice would be to write the budget first, work out what is feasible financially and then write the application.
It is, in fact, key to understand the objectives of the individual funder, whether it’s Arts Council England or a local arts trust. It is important to consider that these organisations will have clear ideas of how their funding can enhance the arts for both the artist and for audiences. Clarity of the project is critical; be pragmatic yet creative. Being original about how to engage audiences is a very important part of creating a robust application. The stronger the idea, the easier it is. Going back to an earlier point, it is also key to have networked and, therefore, understood the potential audiences. You need to be able to demonstrate that you have identified a need for this engagement, and indeed an appropriate way to communicate and engage with the audience. An added bonus: you may also find that, in speaking to the potential audiences, it sparks off ideas and outcomes that you may not otherwise have ever considered.
The key thing, again simplistic sounding but often ignored, is to be aware of what’s available. It isn’t rocket science, but it’s a long game and yes, sometimes you have to put the effort in. It will pay off in the end!