Arts Council England (ACE) has overhauled its flagship organisational strategy known as Let’s Create after a UK government-commissioned report last year criticised the framework for being overly bureaucratic.
“Each of our funding programmes would include reference to Let’s Create in their guidance and eligibility criteria,” explains an ACE spokesperson. ACE’s new interim strategic framework, described as a “stepping-stone” move, replaces the defunct strategy, which will enable the arm’s-length public funding body to make “impactful funding decisions at a time when our resources are finite”.
The shake-up follows a far-reaching review of ACE led by the Labour peer Margaret Hodge, which was published last December. “Many expressed support for the principles of Let’s Create and were committed to ensuring that these were reflected in their work,” Hodge wrote, adding, however: “Though the strategy was named Let’s Create, many felt that its implementation stifled creativity and innovation.”
ACE subsequently responded: “It’s… clear that some of those we fund have felt that the thrust of our current strategy, Let’s Create, at times constrained their freedom to develop the art that matters to them. No one, neither artists nor audiences, is well served by this.”
Writing in The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins said that Hodge recommended “binning Let’s Create, the 10-year strategy designed to take ACE all the way to 2030, in favour of a simpler strategy that allows organisations to apply based on their own strengths, rather than endlessly banging square pegs into round holes.”
Let’s Create was a 10-year plan introduced by ACE in 2020, presenting an “ambitious vision for the future of creativity and culture”. The strategy was centred on four investment principles, including “Environmental Responsibility” and “Inclusivity & Relevance”.
ACE pledged that the cultural workforce would be representative of “contemporary England” under Let’s Create, given the persistent lack of diversity across the creative industries. “We will take steps to support the cultural sector to set the pace in coming up with imaginative new approaches to promoting environmental responsibility,” said the organisation.
The new Strategic Framework is based on three principles and must do three things— “support excellence, deliver for everybody and reach everywhere”, says Arts Council England. Historically, funding for arts and culture has been unevenly distributed, says the new document, which stresses that ACE will seek to balance investment and activity across the country. ACE will continue to build its network of “Priority Places”, locations across England where investment and engagement in the arts is too low.
Some measures will be implemented instantly. “We will start working immediately with freelancers and individual artists to develop a new service for individuals, with a national funding programme at its heart,” says the document. One museum professional told The Art Newspaper anonymously that “the revamp is welcome but let’s hope that this approach turns out to be far less prescriptive”.
Crucially, Nicholas Serota, the chair of ACE, steps down on 31 July. The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport will oversee the recruitment and appointment of Serota’s replacement, a move that will be closely watched by the culture sector.
