The Space awarded funding to support arts and cultural organisations

February 8, 2018

Arts Council England has announced that The Space will receive £3 million of National Lottery funding to deliver a programme of digital skills development between 2018-2021.

The organisation will support arts and culture organisations to extend the digital reach of arts content and experiences.

Key focus areas will include:

Training and Skills Development: focusing on subjects ranging from digital strategy, online audience development and the production of creative and cultural digital content for broadcast and online distribution delivered through workshops, webinars and online learning

Digital development services:  supporting arts and cultural organisations’ work in developing creative media including strategic planning, broadcast and digital production support, content distribution and audience development services

Sector strategic support: addressing identified sector-wide needs in relation to skills and understanding in multi-media production, and then facilitating initiatives designed to reduce barriers to the production of digital creative projects

Creative broadcast and digital R and D investments: commissioning and supporting the development of projects to allow arts and cultural organisations to test approaches to extend their work digitally, acquiring new skills and gaining practical, sustainable experience in creating digital content and engaging broadcast and online audiences

The programme of work continues the joint support of Arts Council England and BBC Arts in funding digital commissioning and development for arts and cultural organisations.

Fiona Morris, CEO and Creative Director said:

We are delighted to have been awarded this National Lottery funding by Arts Council England. It will enable us to continue to build on the sector engagement and digital capacity building that we have been developing over the last four years, allowing us to collaborate with even more arts and cultural organisations to deliver digital innovation, increased online diversity and reach for cultural content and the opportunity to showcase the incredible range of creative content being produced by arts and cultural organisations across England.

Simon Mellor, Deputy Chief Executive of Art and Culture, at Arts Council England said:

We want to help arts and culture organisations to take advantage of the creative and business opportunities that new technologies offer. We want them to use these technologies to engage with new audiences in new ways and build more resilient businesses.  We believe that The Space can play a central role in helping many of those organisations develop the skills they need to take advantage of those opportunities. We are delighted therefore to be working alongside the BBC to invest in The Space for another three years and support the company in the next stage of its evolution.

Jonty Claypole, Director of BBC Arts added:

Over the last few years, The Space has played a transformative role in supporting many arts organisations to create new media content – for digital distribution as well as broadcast. The BBC is delighted to be joining Arts Council England in continuing to support its work. We want to see artists and organisations from across the UK producing new experiences that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. And we look forward to sharing those projects with audiences everywhere.

The release issued by Arts Council England states that The Space’s track record in supporting digital skills development through its commissioning of projects, training workshops and online resources means that it is well equipped to work with the wider sector, as well as its funded organisations.

More details of the programme will be annouced on this website shortly.

To read about how The Space has opened up the arts to over 11 million people head over to the news section of the website.