Current programmes
The Space was awarded Arts Council Investment Principle Support Organisation (IPSO) status in April 2023. IPSO organisations work across the arts, cultural and heritage sectors to help organisations and individuals embed the Investment Principles within their work.
As an ISPO we provide a national programme of digital skills development and commissioning support. Our aim is to enhance the arts and cultural sector’s dynamism, enabling them to innovate their business models and explore new routes to audience engagement via digital content creation and distribution.
The current programme includes
- Digital commissions: a national programme of digital cultural content commissions reflecting the diversity of contemporary England. Commissions are awarded by open call and support innovation and further learning through sector case studies. Successful applicants receive both funding and practical support to produce their digital creative content.
- Strategic mentoring: in-depth advice and support tailored to organisations’ skills, experience and cultural specialisms. Mentored organisations or groups of individuals receive mentoring and peer learning sessions aimed at increasing their confidence and skills with digital content strategy.
- Responsive advice: sessions for organisations and individuals covering topics on digital strategy, online audience development and content production.
- Online support: free webinars, online case studies, articles, toolkits and podcasts covering topics such as digital rights, online accessibility and measuring digital impact.
- Broadcast development: connecting ideas and talent from the cultural sector with UK broadcast commissioners, acquisition teams and producers. We develop broadcast opportunities for under-represented voices, regions and smaller organisations. Examples include the Sky Arts Musical Masterpieces, Channel 4’s Museum of Us, and Rambert’s production of Peaky Blinders which was broadcast on BBC TV on New Year’s Day 2024.
- Digital distribution support: helping present the best of English digital culture internationally via our relationships with British Council, other international arts councils and digital platforms.
- Individual freelance support: prioritising inclusivity and inclusive skills development amongst our network of freelance associates.
- Black Country talent development: a programme in partnership with Creative Black Country to identify new talent and provide mentoring, commissions, production and distribution support to artists in Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell. Creatives are being supported to make and distribute short form audio/video/interactive creative content.
- Digital Culture Talks: our annual Digital Culture Talks create time to explore the role of digital creativity and its ability to inspire, inform and entertain audiences. They feature keynote talks from speakers across the cultural sector and thought-provoking panel discussions from artists, industry leaders and academics.
- Navigating Digital Change: a pilot programme to help cultural leaders in England explore what digital transformation means for them and their organisations and to consider practical ways to make it happen.
- Digital cultural content evaluation: a research project to establish a more systematic sector wide approach to measuring and evaluating the cultural value of digital content and experiences.
- Createch Frontiers: a 5-year £7.2 million project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It aims to support creative businesses, cultural organisations, artists to co-create new ideas, explore cutting-edge technologies, and build a stronger, more connected CreaTech ecosystem across the West Midlands.
West Midlands Broadcast Development
Funders and partners: Arts Council England, BBC, Create Central, More4, ScreenSkills, Sky Arts
This 18-month programme, co-developed with regional and national partners, builds on the national focus on the West Midlands in 2022, resulting from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and Coventry UK City of Culture.
Led by The Space, the programme is helping to develop new audio-visual production partnerships in the region. It will result in new cultural content being produced for UK broadcasters that increases the national profile for West Midland’s arts, culture, stories and talent and boosts the region’s production ecology.
For artists and creatives in the region who are new to the world of broadcast, our “Pitch Perfect” development strand provides them with professional support to develop new ideas that can be pitched to broadcast commissioners, helping to develop the next generation of broadcast capability.