Partnership for the Arts, the Arts Council’s strategy, was published in December 2005. This strategy sets out a range of diverse activities and projects which will be delivered across 10 programmes over a five-year period. These programmes encompass:
- funding - we support the delivery of activity and allow the arts community to realise their ideas;
- support and advice - we ensure a) that arts community has access to the best possible information and assistance in the development and delivery of their creative ideas, b) that the wider public is fully informed of the value of the arts in their lives; and c) that government is confident that public funds are used strategically and are disbursed according to well informed and developed policies.
- direct initiatives - we undertake initiatives and projects directly, or in partnership with others, in order to achieve our goals.
10 programmes
Support to artists: where we provide our main financial support to artists via five funding strands.
Flexible funding: where we provide funding for projects and activities on a once-off basis in order to ensure that good ideas which might fall outside the main policy priorities of the Arts Council can be realised.
Annual funding: where we give support on an ongoing basis to arts organisations that produce or present work, and those that offer services and artistic programmes on a year round or seasonal basis.
Regular funding: where we offer long-term support towards the activities of organisations that represent a core arts infrastructure.
Partnerships: where we work in cooperation with public, private or voluntary sector bodies to address key strategic priorities for the arts.
Residencies: where we support artists to work in a range of settings either on a short or long-term basis.
Advocacy & Initiatives: where we advocate for the arts and undertake projects of work designed to address specific issues or development needs within the arts community.
Audiences & dissemination: where we encourage arts organisations and artists to disseminate their work widely, to build public understanding of their work and to enable people to experience it, whether as audiences or participants.
Policy making: where we develop policy which guides funding decisions and the allocation of resources.
Corporate services: where we ensure that high standards, principles of best practice and value for public funds are applied to our work.