Penny Harris looks at what funding is available to artists, and how to apply for it.
Penny Harris
Parker Harris was created by Emma Parker and Penny Harris in 1990, and it is now one of the leading visual arts consultancies in the UK. Parker Harris manage some of the most important art prizes and exhibitions in the UK and mentor artists through all aspects of their careers.
To learn more about their professional development and online marketing coaching programmes, you can email [email protected]. You can also stay in touch with Parker Harris on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
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 Covid pandemic 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 to classes. All of these are worth investigating.
New Dawn, light sculpture in St Stephen’s Hall, Houses of Parliament, London by Mary Branson
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 below – 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.
VISIT THE ARTS COUNCIL WEBSITE
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.
One Moon by Mary Branson
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!
Case Study - Mary Branson
Mary Branson in hard hat
Mary Branson is best known for her large-scale conceptual light sculptures and installations, particularly the iconic New Dawn 2016 sculpture in the Houses of Parliament, which celebrates the centenary of the Suffrage movement and is the first permanent piece of contemporary abstract art in the Palace of Westminster.
She has created light and sound works for the London 2012 Olympics, The Magna Carta Memorial at Runnymede, Royal Holloway University and ‘Harvest’ a huge site specific installation at Box Hill Surrey in collaboration with the Surrey Hills and National Trust, highlighting the plight of farmers facing climate change.
At the beginning of 2019 Mary transformed Salisbury Cathedral into an ethereal construction site.
Mary is an award-winning print maker, a choreographer for a number of performance and dance events, and a mentor and public speaker. She enjoys the challenge of using landscape and architecture as a backdrop to site-responsive pieces.
She often works with large teams of volunteers to help her realise her ambitious uses of scale and finds the shared ownership of the community as an important part of her artistic process. She has held a number of artistic residencies, including for Parliament, the British Council, Crisis, the National Trust and HM Prison service, where she led an art group for women prisoners.
As many of her installations are temporary, Mary’s projects can encompass elements of performance, photography, film and sound as forms of documentation.
Q. How do you fund your practice?
A. I have two main income streams. The majority of my projects are publicly funded but I am also an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society. Since 2016, as a result of an Arts Council England grant I’ve also developed my print practice to be able to sell one-off pieces to the public.
Q. How do your projects come to fruition?
A. Since graduating I’ve built up an extensive network. It started with the local arts development officer. I put myself on the radar to get experience.
It was a steep learning curve realising how much work was involved in delivering large site specific events. I learned about the value of having friends and collaborators to be involved. It gave me a blueprint of how to make in the future.
It is important to keep up to date with what local arts organisations, trusts and foundations are involved with and to keep them aware of what you are doing. I also always mentor and have a mentor on my projects because I believe in a circuit of learning.
Q. What advice would you give for artists seeking funding for their projects.
A. Network: getting funding is all about knowing the people on the group who will support you. It’s all about collaboration and ACE is all about relationship building. You have to make potential funders aware of what you are doing – they can’t help you if they don’t know about you!
Preparation: do your homework and start the conversations early. Talk to people about collaborating or mentoring, so that when you start writing your application you have a grounded project rather than just ideas. When you start talking it often opens up the project beyond your original ideas.
What to consider with public funded projects: when a project is funded by public money it’s important that the project is reaching new audiences and can effectively engage with them. Legacy is also very important, this might be a film, book or a tour.
Budget: be honest about how much it really costs to put things on. You need to have costed it out properly and pay everyone fairly. Always cost in your time because you cannot have a sustainable practice without paying yourself.
Making the application: if it’s an ACE application take the questions from the Grantium portal and put them into a Word document so that you have a very strict word count. Then send that out to other people to read to make sure it’s very clear. The first question will ask you to summarise your project; if you can’t precis the project in one sentence, then you’re probably not ready to apply.
Don’t expect to be successful every time but the feedback that ACE give is excellent and you can apply again. And once you’ve been successful you have a track record.
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