Voluntary Arts England, supported by the Arts Council, has launched the epic awards, an award scheme designed to recognise and shine a spotlight on the excellent work taking place within the 50,000 voluntary and amateur art and craft groups operating throughout the country.  Nominations for the award are open now.

In association with Arts & Business, the NCA is creating a forum of leading cultural figures from the UK’s cultural sector to help formulate plans to re-energise cultural funding from the private sector.

Yesterday, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced which projects were to be axed as part of a range of cuts totalling £73 million.

Arts Council England (ACE) today outlined how it would apportion the £19 million in-year budget cuts. In brief, it has been able to use £9 million of its historic reserves to mitigate the cuts to RFOs and cap these at £1.8 million, a 0.5% reduction across the board. This means that the average cut to arts organisations is £2,000, with the range varying from £142,000 to £105. 

The NCA was in attendance at Toynbee Hall as Munira Mirza unveiled the Mayoral Cultural Strategy for 2012 and beyond. Topics addressed during the presentation included education, environmental sustainability and the improvement of arts provision for London’s outer boroughs.

In the forthcoming edition of nca news, Arts council England’s Chief Executive, Alan Davey has agreed to answer questions from NCA members.

Following the rather gloomy news from the Treasury we can, perhaps take some small comfort from two recently announced consultations which may pave the way for new avenues of funding for the sector.

The NCA has submitted its response to Arts Council England’s Achieving great art for everyone consultation, ACE’s ten-year strategy which aims to place the arts at the centre of national life and ensure their continued growth throughout the next decade.

Slid in under the wire late last Thursday, just before the Easter break, the departments for Culture, Media and Sport and Children, Schools and Families published “A place for Culture: Developing a local culture offer for all children and young people.”

Don’t miss this last chance to feed into the NCA’s response to Arts Council England’s (ACE) Achieving great art for everyone consultation. ACE’s ten-year strategic framework is a watershed document that has implications for future investment decisions and it is vital that members take the opportunity comment on its proposed strategy going forward.

DCMS is running another consultation on the Licensing Act, which proposes to “exempt small live music events for audiences of not more than 100 people from the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003 relating to the licensing of live music as regulated entertainment under the Act. “ It is hoped that this exemption will benefit small venues that wish to hold live music events, but are deterred by the licensing requirements and costs, as well as musicians who may find more opportunities to perform. As well as presenting an increased opportunity for the wider public to hear live music, the exemption is expected to make a number of administrative savings. People and organisations that currently use Temporary Event Notices to put on live music on an occasional basis, and licensed venues that put on small live music events for no more than 100 people are subject to a burden that the proposal will lift. It is estimated that this administrative saving could be around £406K - £881k per year. It is also estimated that there will be fee savings of around £379K - £503K. The full consultation can be viewed here.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is holding a consultation on the introduction of the Pupils and Parents Guarantees (PPG), which brings together an account of the key components of a good education. The focus throughout is on the entitlements and the responsibilities of pupils and parents, helping to ensure that  parents and pupils know what they can expect from schools. 

DCMS is currently running a consultation on the Licensing Act 2003, on a proposal to exclude the provision of musical instruments from the definition of entertainment facilities, and clarify that entertainment facilities are not separately licensable if they are used solely for the provision of incidental music. The NCA welcomes these proposals, which go some way to lighten the restrictions that the Licensing Act currently places on live music. The consultation can be viewed here.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) have published an initial review of the Find Your Talent (FYT) programme, launched in 2008.

DCMS is currently running a consultation on the Licensing Act 2003, on a proposal to exclude the provision of musical instruments from the definition of entertainment facilities, and clarify that entertainment facilities are not separately licensable if they are used solely for the provision of incidental music. The NCA welcomes these proposals, which go some way to lighten the restrictions that the Licensing Act currently places on live music. The consultation can be viewed here.

Last week, we reported that Arts Council England (ACE) had launched Achieving great art for everyone – a consultation on future priorities for the arts, the results of which will inform a ten-year strategic framework and ACE’s future investment decisions, and asked Members to submit comments and evidence to inform our response. Briefly, the consultation outlines five long-term goals that will drive ACE’s development work, inform its funding priorities and strengthen relationships with artists, organisations and audiences.

Arts Council England (ACE) has announced the appointment of 152 people to produce assessments on the artistic work of its regularly funded organisations (RFOs). The assessors, selected from over 1,100 applicants, will report on the full range of art forms – music, literature, dance, visual arts, theatre and combined arts – including specialisms such as work for children and young people, culturally specific arts and disability-led arts. They will begin reporting from February 2010. Andrew Nairne, Executive Director of Arts Strategy at Arts Council England said: “We're confident that we've got an outstanding group of people who will give us rich and valuable commentary on the artistic work of the organisations we regularly fund.”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have announced a further 223 theatre and performing arts apprenticeships, after successfully securing funding to help young unemployed people into a career in the arts sector. Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw called the £1.45 million announcement “a tremendous investment in our creative industries and in the talent of the future.” Funding has been confirmed for:

Arts Council England (ACE) has launched Achieving great art for everyone – a consultation on future priorities for the arts, the results of which will inform a ten-year strategic framework and ACE’s future investment decisions. The consultation represents the first time the Arts Council has brought together all arts forms and development areas into one set of long-term priorities. The NCA will be responding to the consultation, and asks Members to submit comments and evidence before 22 March. This can be sent to nca@artscampaign.org.uk

The NCA has been invited to attend a meeting headed by Sarah Thane (former chair of the Royal Television Society and a former adviser to Ofcom on regulation and content) to discuss issues concerning the Government’s exploratory review of the regulation of child performance. The aim of the review, commissioned by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), is to explore scope for consensus among the various parties for what a modern, effective and proportionate set of arrangements for the regulation of child performance should look like.