City to follow national lead with three-year arts funding scheme

The authority is proposing a “more rigorous and transparent grant process” which is likely to benefit smaller organisations at the expense of larger ones.

The new scheme will see grants awarded for three-year terms, rather than the current 12 months, a change that large organisations have been advocating.

The replacement scheme – called Leeds Inspired – with annual funding of about £500,000, will focus each year on a specific theme to promote the city. Total annual funding for arts, culture and sports organisations in the city is expected to be in the region of £2.6m.

Organisations wishing to bid for funding will need to provide greater evidence of how they plan to use the cash following set criteria that will monitored and reviewed each year.

The plan follows a similar change to three-year funding arrangements by the Arts Council in England, giving organisations greater stability and the ability to plan their programmes for longer rather than having to re-apply annually.

The Leeds proposal came from discussions with many of the major arts, culture and sport organisations in the city.

They said they preferred to switch to longer-term agreements especially in light of current and expected future funding cuts.

If approved, the system would come into place next April with the first set of grants running until March 2015.

All organisations would be able to bid for funding against criteria that will have a strong focus on finding and developing young talent.

Four themes have been built into the criteria: the first is how the organisation would identify, develop and retain talent in the city, as well as how they would attract established artists to Leeds from outside, using apprenticeships, volunteering, coaching and training.

The second is based on removing barriers to show how activities are open and attractive to all regardless of social circumstances or background. The third is to demonstrate how distinctive Leeds is a city, and to promote that both within Leeds and across the country.

The final theme concerns the community, with organisations asked to demonstrate how they work with communities and also the impact of that work.

The council says it will closely monitor successful organisations, checking regularly to ensure the four themes are being followed. Each will be officially reviewed annually.

The change could also see the adoption of a parallel funding stream – called Leeds Inspired.

This would see organisations apply for separate or additional funding from a pot of about £500,000 to promote a single aspect of Leeds.

This idea came from consultation with individual artists and organisations to identify what the city needs to do to become more engaging and vibrant.

They suggested identifying a single topic – inspired by Leeds and promoting the city – which organisations large and small could adopt simultaneously.

The first subject proposed is the Cultural Olympiad surrounding next year’s London Olympic .

A programme has for a major festival for everyone in the city has already been devised.

Future subjects could include the 2013 Rugby League World Cup if the Leeds bid to be a host city is approved.

Leeds Council’s executive member for leisure Councillor Adam Ogilvie said: “With the level of funding available to us and for us to be able to pass on to the cultural organisations being reduced, this was a good time to work with the organisations to see how they can best deliver strong and exciting programmes and the response was strongly to switch to this new system.”

Members of the executive committee will discuss the proposals next Wednesday.