Creative media policy
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Transcript of Creative media policy
Contents
1 Our vision 3
What will success look like? 4
Creating the conditions for success 5
2 Context 6
3 Arts Council England’s policy approach 8
Other areas of digital development 13
4 How will we achieve this? 15
Funded organisations 15
Development activities – supporting creative media partnerships
and learning 15
Investment mechanisms to support creative media 16
Other Arts Council investment to support creative media 19
Other sources of creative media funding and support 21
Appendix 1 – Definitions 22
2 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
1 Our vision
In Achieving great art for everyone we identify ‘the dizzying potential of digital technology in
transforming the way we make, distribute, receive and exchange art.’
We want to unlock this vast and largely untapped potential – to create, share and link artistic
and cultural works in ways made uniquely possible through digital media.
We believe the public should be able to access the best of publicly funded culture through
digital media and technologies, complementing and enhancing the essential live, place-based
experiences that will continue to form the backbone of the arts.
We can now connect with audiences in new ways, bringing them into a closer relationship
with the arts and creating new ways for them to take part. We have unprecedented
opportunities to encourage new forms of creativity and artistic expression, economic growth,
business model innovation and wider public access to arts and culture. We will do this by
supporting a new era of digital content and experiences that are created for, and adapted to,
this new digital space.
Digital technologies are transforming society, economy and culture. Global media networks
offer significant opportunities for the UK’s digital content industries including ‘cultural
institutions that foster, create and maintain digital content’1, enabling them to reach new
international audiences and markets. Opportunities to produce and distribute work, including
across multiple platforms, are increasing and we believe that there is rich potential for the arts
and cultural sectors to contribute to and benefit from this growth area of creative media,
accounting for ’70 per cent of the value and estimated potential growth of the creative
industries…in the UK.’2
Creative media as a term has been traditionally used to describe the industries producing
digital and creative content.3 This includes those companies working in film, television, radio,
interactive content, electronic publishing, software and computer games.
1 Sector Skills Assessment for the Creative Media Industries in the UK, Skillset, 2011, p142 Ibid, p83 Ibid, p8
3 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
Within this wider ecology and economy, the Arts Council is applying creative media as a term
to refer to artistic and cultural works and content that are created for digital
platforms and/or distributed digitally to engage the public.
This covers all artforms including dance, literature, music, theatre, visual arts, and combined
arts. This includes emerging and innovative hybrid practices that work across boundaries and
disciplines and creative media produced by people within the arts, museum and libraries
sectors.
There are broadly three major areas of creative media content and experiences. Details of
these can be found in Appendix 1.
Our Creative media policy aims to:
support an increase in the quality, volume and reach of digital content and
experiences from the arts and cultural sector for artistic, economic and audience
development and growth.
We have a strong track record of supporting pioneering digital arts practice and innovations
and there are many brilliant artists, arts organisations and museums who are working in the
digital space. However, it remains true that as a proportion of our overall investment in the
arts, only a small fraction of the arts and culture we fund or have funded can be accessed and
enjoyed by the public through digital platforms. We understand some of the barriers and
challenges for artists and cultural organisations in producing and preserving creative media for
current and future audiences. But we know the rewards will be transformational.
What will success look like?
• more artists will choose to create new work for audiences using digital tools and
platforms
• more excellent creative media from the arts and cultural sector will become accessible
through digital platforms, catalogued, linked and archived for current and future
audiences
• there will be an increase in the numbers and range of people accessing publicly funded
creative media through digital devices and platforms
4 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
• the Arts Council’s National portfolio of funded organisations will have developed their
capacity in key areas identified within the policy
• more opportunities for artists, curators and cultural producers will be created to work
with higher education, researchers, technologists and creative media industry partners to
innovate and produce new creative media content, products and services
• new partnership approaches will generate new expertise, investment and sponsorship to
strengthen arts and cultural organisations’ creative media work and audience
engagement in arts and culture
• rigorous research and development, investment and knowledge transfer programmes will
generate new learning in relation to reaching new audiences, markets and developing
business models
Creating the conditions for success
We need to focus our efforts now on achieving this potential. We will invest in major skills
and capacity building initiatives that are flexible, responsive and address gaps identified in
feedback from the arts, museums and library sectors.
We will focus our advocacy, investment and development activities on helping connect artists,
performers, curators, producers and organisations to each other and to skills, expertise and
investments from the wider creative media and technology industries.
We want to bring the dynamic energies of our best contemporary artists, creatives and
curators together with our vast artistic and cultural heritage into this new exciting digital
space. This new connected vision of art and culture stretches across art forms, time and
geographic boundaries. The public has invested in all that we fund, and they have a growing
expectation to be able to access it via different media. And so this policy approach describes
how we will contribute to achieving great art and culture for everyone digitally.
Partnerships and collaboration will be essential to deliver the creative media policy and
address the major development opportunities and challenges. We look forward to
strengthening our existing partnerships, building new relationships with partners from the
wider creative industries and working closely with our funded organisations to develop more
detailed and imaginative proposals.
5 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
2 Context
The latest generation of digital technologies – from smartphones and tablets to internet TVs
– is leading to the emergence of ‘next-generation internet users’ who own multiple internet-
connected devices and access the internet from multiple locations, especially on the move.4
Take up of digital communications services reached landmark thresholds in 2011: nearly all
households (97 per cent) now have digital TV; household internet take-up has reached 78 per
cent; and over 30 per cent of mobile users now own a smartphone. Over 1 million internet-
connected TVs were sold in the UK in 20115.’
Recent research has confirmed that 53 per cent of the on-line population has used the
internet to engage with arts and culture in the past 12 months6 and we believe that the
potential for UK and international audiences to experience arts and culture through these
expanding digital platforms is enormous.
The Arts Council has been working strategically to support digital innovation and
development over the past five years. This is in addition to our policy responsibilities for digital
arts, artists’ film and video and arts broadcasting,7 and in funding a range of digital work
across art forms through our National portfolio and Grants for the arts funding programmes.
Digital opportunities was one of our four corporate priorities between 2008 and 2011. This
generated hundreds of diverse projects across England and new research into digital
engagement and the availability of great art on digital platforms. Through this programme,
we identified a paucity of digital content from the arts sector together with skills gaps in areas
such as media production and distribution, understanding audiences, business models,
technology, data and intellectual property. It was also clear that for many, ‘digital
development’ related substantially to marketing their venue/organisation using digital
platforms such as the web and social media but not to the creation of digital content and
experiences as part of their core artistic, cultural or educational mission.
4 William H. Dutton and Grant Blank, Next Generation Users: The Internet in Britain, OII, 20115 Communications Market Report, Ofcom, 20116 Digtal Audiences: engagement with arts and culture online, MTM London, 2012 7 These policies were agreed with DCMS and the former UK Film Council and relate to Appendix F, Film Council and the Arts Council of England Guidance note, Policy responsibilities for Film, Television and the Moving Image from 1 April 2000 in Film in England, UK Film Council, 2000
6 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
In our responses to Ofcom’s Public service broadcasting review and to Digital Britain, we
identified the significant potential for arts and cultural organisations to contribute to a more
vibrant and plural public service content ecology through becoming producers and
commissioners of media content and experiences and extending public value.
Our 10-year strategic framework for arts, museums and libraries outlined in Achieving great
art for everyone and Culture, knowledge and understanding: great museums and libraries for
everyone presents digital technologies as an overarching context for arts and culture. It also
sets out specific priorities: ‘strengthening the distribution of excellent art through touring and
digital platforms’ and developing ‘digital work to encompass museums and libraries and
encourage a greater sharing of collections and assets, extend reach and generate richer
experiences for audiences.’
Our framework also recognised that digital development and innovation related to all of its
five goals, with a need for artistic innovation, excellent content and experiences that could be
distributed and/or engage audiences directly, the building of sector skills, capacity and
resilience and the need to ensure a strong cultural offer for children and young people.
In 2011/12, to begin to address these issues, we launched three major digital programmes:
• The Space, a £5.5 million programme with the BBC and BFI that attracted 750
applications, and supported 53 commissions
• Building digital capacity for the arts – a £200,000 partnership between the Arts Council
and BBC Academy to create a programme of digital development and skills sharing
through workshops and seminars across England
• the Digital R&D fund for arts and culture, a £500,000 fund run through a partnership
between the Arts Council, Nesta and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
which attracted 495 applications and supported eight action research projects.
7 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
3 Arts Council England’s policy approachto creative media
’We are at the very beginning of a new era in arts development, with dramatic shifts
underway in how art is produced, distributed and consumed. While there are several
trailblazing organisations… issues of capacity, know-how, confidence and recalcitrance are
combining to block progression and in turn sti fle innovation and growth.’8
We believe a creative media policy is now needed for the arts, museums and libraries to
provide a structured approach to this vibrant, converged ecology.
The policy has the potential to support and strengthen the wider cultural infrastructure and
deliver greater public value and engagement.
The policy covers all artforms and the totality of our development and investment activities
including the work of our National portfolio organisations and Major partner museums,
strategic funding and Grants for the arts. The policy will support activities that engage
children and young people both as creators and audiences
We have a commitment to the widest distribution and accessibility of creative media. Our
policy aims to be as inclusive as possible and we will ensure that accessibility is central to our
approach.
This policy sets out nine development areas that will need to be addressed if we are going to
see a significant growth in the quality, volume and reach of creative media content and
experiences produced by arts and cultural organisations.
These development areas are:
1. Skills and training
Arts Council research and reports by UKOLN have identified a particular need for skills and
workforce development in relation to creative media production, commissioning and
distribution. This is in addition to areas of development within other parts of the creative
media policy approach such as rights, data and archives. We will develop partnerships that will
8 Tom Fleming Consultancy, Supporting growth in the arts economy, Arts Council England, 2011
8 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
contribute to creating a coherent approach to skills development. We will encourage local
networks and skills development programmes to respond to current gaps in provision.
2. Talent development
Artists’ practice is changing in response to new technologies and there is a shift in the types
of work being made across different artforms and a blurring of the boundaries between
artforms. In order to support these new types of work we will ensure that our approach to
talent development embraces creative media and supports a greater diversity of progression
routes for individuals and artists working in and across sectors. We want to support artists’
ambitions to work in film, broadcasting, games and with new technologies to develop and
create more work, crossing over into new areas of practice. We will work closely with the BFI
and other partners to achieve this objective.
3. Media production
People working in the arts and cultural sectors are beginning to incorporate creative media
practices into their work, and to re-imagine what an arts and cultural experience can be
digitally. We will invest in and support artists and organisations so that they can develop new
kinds of audio-visual content that can engage audiences in new, interactive and participatory
ways (see Appendix 1 for more detail).
Low-cost production technologies mean that arts and culture can be available more quickly,
cheaply, flexibly and at a higher quality than was previously possible. However, many
organisations lack the necessary skills and experience to re-conceive and adapt great art and
culture for a digital environment. In order to make the best use of available technology and
distribution platforms, the arts and culture sector need to form partnerships with
organisations with complementary expertise and resources that allow widespread and
effective production and distribution of content.
We will create and broker large-scale partnerships to open up new development opportunities
and platforms for arts and culture. In doing so, we will also seek to create opportunities for
knowledge transfer so that the participating organisations can learn how to develop and
create more work in the future.
4. Digital exhibition and distribution
New technology, from smart phone apps to online streaming, has opened up new possibilities
and challenges for artists and organisations. This could create the opportunity, in some cases,
for international revenues to be generated. We see potential partnership opportunities in
9 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
working with the British Council, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and others to support new
models of co-production and distribution and attract international interest and funding.
We will work to strengthen the physical and digital infrastructure for art and culture with
partners across England. We have a shared interest with the BFI in a wide range of media and
film venues and festivals and we know that more can be achieved through an integrated
cultural approach. We will support digital exhibition of creative media particularly in regions
where arts and cultural engagement and the producing infrastructure is low. The libraries
digital infrastructure also offers opportunities to reach new audiences and provide public
access to digital content and services.
Improving search, aggregation and curation are vital issues in the digital space to help attract
attention and improve the discoverability of creative media. The Arts Council’s partnership
with the BBC and BFI on The Space provides a good example of a bold public sector
intervention in creating a space for a wide diversity of new commissions and archived cultural
works for the public, forging relationships across genre, era and individual artists and/or
organisations.
5. Archives and collections
A huge amount of publicly-funded culture is contained in archives. Some has been digitised
already, but much remains inaccessible. This limits audience choice and therefore the ability to
maximise the delivery of public value through archived material.
Greater coordination across the arts, cultural, heritage and creative media sectors can help to
ensure that arts and cultural archives and collections are digitised, available, attractive, easy to
find and can be brought to life in new ways.
In partnership with the National Archives (which has the government mandate for archive
sector leadership) the BFI (which has a strategic responsibility for audio-visual archives) and
other partners including the BBC, we will address a range of archive issues, including shared
adoption of standards which will help to make this work more publically accessible. We will
encourage best practice in archives management, helping organisations to think about how
they may capture and archive the creative media they have produced for future long term use
and access.
We will support skills development in archiving, rights management, curation and
preservation as we recognise that these represent pressing needs.
10 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
We will help artists to explore the creative use and reuse, where appropriate, of arts and
cultural archive material. And we are committed to making the Arts Council’s own archives of
cultural material, including our film collection, digitally available.
6. Data and metadata
Arts and cultural organisations need to understand the value of cultural digital assets
including the data they hold about their work and their audiences and how this can be used
to maximise their public value. Data and its importance to online businesses is becoming
increasingly clear. Harnessing and analysing this data is an important step in the development
of strong public-facing applications and shared intelligence about audiences. It can also help
to inform strategic decisions that organisations may take as part of their business
development.
The gathering of data and use of metadata (information about digital assets) is a hugely
important area of work in relation to creative media. Rich metadata can enhance users’
experience and help organisations to better engage and understand their audiences. Metadata
co-operation across sectors is vital for improving discovery and access. We will explore with
partners how we can encourage the adoption of standard forms of metadata more widely.
This can help to create a digital public space by which publically funded art and culture works
are digitised, catalogued and archived, enabling them to be linked, found and enjoyed.
7. Rights and intellectual property
Rights and intellectual property are a challenge for all artists and organisations and a lack of
understanding about relevant legislation, models and professional practice as well as the
difficulty of negotiating new electronic distribution rights, especially in the performing arts,
hinders their ability to make work available through digital channels. Many artists and
organisations lack knowledge, confidence and experience in preparing material and clearing
rights for digital distribution or exhibition and need support to be better informed about the
types of rights agreements that are available and current best practice in negotiating rights for
digital distribution of work.
The Hargreaves report on intellectual property9 sets an overall policy direction that can benefit
the creative and cultural sectors (as well as the wider economy) but there is a need for
interventions and support aimed explicitly at the cultural sector. While there are already
sources of advice for the creative sector in relation to intellectual property and rights, more
9 Professor Ian Hargreaves, Digital Opportunity: A review of intellectual property and growth, Intellectual Property Office, 2011
11 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
detailed and specialist training and support is needed to help organisations grappling with the
challenges of making their work available digitally and where they want to derive an income
from their assets. We will actively encourage sharing of models of best practice and will work
with partners to support this complex landscape and identify the best mechanisms for
support.
8. Audience engagement and learning
This challenge relates predominantly to how we will engage audiences in conversations
around creative media and encourage new forms of participation and learning in areas that
may have been hitherto unavailable.
Digital media provides unprecedented opportunities for the public to engage with and learn
more about art and culture in new ways including: co-producing, re-working and participating
in creative media content, and building rich and personalised social media profiles around art
and culture that interests them. We will encourage our funded organisations to develop
creative media that can engage audiences of all ages, building knowledge and deepening
understanding.
As the technical barriers to accessing creative media are reduced, it is important that work
from the arts and cultural sector should be created with a view to reaching the widest
possible audience including new audiences and those who do not currently engage in the
arts.
More sophisticated analysis of current and potential markets for digital work is needed
together with a common approach to audience metrics and development. The Digital R&D
Fund for the Arts run by the Arts Council, Nesta and the Arts and Humanities Research
Council (AHRC) will play an important role in testing new approaches to deepening audience
engagement and extending reach through digital work and technologies. In addition, our
Audience focus fund will be supporting arts and cultural organisations to segment and
analyse their live and digital audiences.
9. Business models and organisational development
The development of creative media by arts and cultural organisations will have a significant
impact on their business models. Arts and cultural organisations want to understand how to
use new digital technologies to explore new business models that will allow them to raise
revenue, explore untapped markets and lower costs.
12 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
There is a need for research to provide tested models that organisations can use or adapt to
their own businesses. Our expanded Digital R&D fund for the Arts run in partnership with
Nesta and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will provide this research and we
hope that it will lead to the development of new business models across the sector.
Alongside the goal of delivering public value, we want to support the arts and cultural sector
to generate revenue, by monetising content where appropriate, and to explore new income
streams from creative media through subscription, commercial sponsorship, mobile and social
media marketing and paid-for digital advertising. This could involve sector-wide or
collaborative approaches.
Other areas of digital development
This Creative media policy is not intended to cover the full range of digital innovation and
development. Some important aspects of digital development and information (such as the
digital marketing of live place based activities, digital marketing content about organisations,
venues, events listings, online box offices and ticketing systems for events) are not directly
referenced within the creative media policy but are an essential part of our public engagement
work.
Investment in IT infrastructure for organisational operations lies outside this policy although
some investment in technology is in its scope where it facilitates aspects of the policy
described above. Fundraising using digital technologies (eg crowd sourcing) is not in scope
except in relation to creative media work that is distributed digitally and for which an artist or
organisation is seeking support.
We also acknowledge that some digital activity particularly in relation to museums and
libraries may fall outside the policy although within the framework outlined in Culture,
knowledge and understanding. For example, much museum activity centres on managing
digital data in relation to collections and creating resources to support education, learning and
research. These are only in the scope of this policy where data and metadata relates to
creative media content and experiences. Much library activity is centred around managing and
making resources accessible not necessarily in the creation or distribution of work.
The Renaissance programme for museums will continue to support collections based work
primarily through our investment in two external organisations: Collections Trust and Culture
13 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
24. We will be working closely with museums, libraries and partners including the Heritage
Lottery Fund to ensure alignment and to explore the potential for the contribution of
museums and libraries to the policy.
14 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
4 How will we achieve this?
Funded organisations
We will maintain a strategic overview of creative media activity, in particular in relation to the
work of our funded organisations. Between 2012 and 2015 every National portfolio
organisation and Major partner museum has a mandatory key performance indicator (KPI) to
‘increase work made available digitally’, with each organisation identifying key areas of growth.
We will measure the quality, volume of creative media produced and audiences for this work
through audience and artistic peer assessment.
We will work with National portfolio organisations, Major partner museums and partners in
2012/13 to agree a new framework for measuring digital engagement with creative media
and in measuring digital engagement with arts and cultural organisations more broadly,
identifying more sophisticated measures of audience engagement and metrics.
We will support best practice in digital accessibility. Being mindful of the requirements of
individuals with impairments of various kinds, cultural organisations should be planning to
reach an acceptable standard of digital accessibility with websites meeting at least W3C
Single A accessibility standard. We expect organisations to consider digital accessibility from
the start of any new project or commission; scoping, scaling, development and delivery.
Development activities – supporting creative media partnerships and learning
We are committed to working with National portfolio organisations and Major partner
museums to facilitate knowledge sharing and dialogue, showcase best practice and to
improve learning.
We will play an active development role in forging and facilitating partnerships that support
the key strands of our approach. We will work with a wide range of partners including those
below, with whom we have a shared interest and/or investment.
• broadcasters including BBC, Channel 4 and Sky Arts
• film bodies including the BFI, Creative England, Film London and former screen agencies
15 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
• public sector bodies including Nesta, Heritage Lottery Fund, JISC, the Strategic Content
Alliance and The National Archives
• government bodies and agencies including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS); Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS); the Intellectual Property
Office (IPO); and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI)
• Creative Scotland, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council Wales and the British Council
• Arts Council England’s National portfolio organisations and Major partner museums
• national museums and libraries
• digital media companies and producers
• publishing and newspaper companies
• games and interactive media companies
• independent production companies
• technology bodies including Technology Strategy Board
• higher education institutions and research bodies including the Arts and Humanities
Research Council (AHRC)
• community media including Community Media Association and Media Trust
• skills and support agencies including Creative Skillset and CC Skills
• strategic audience and marketing bodies including AMA and Audiences England
We will work closely with the BFI to ensure that our respective funding mechanisms are clear
and complementary. A new partnership between the Arts Council and BFI will be announced
in autumn 2012. This will update the Film in England areas of policy responsibility, defined
within Appendix 1, and describe new areas of joint working including co-investment
mechanisms where appropriate.
The BBC and the Arts Council have confirmed that they are working on a new Public Value
Partnership to run between 2013 and 2016. The main focus of this partnership will be finding
ways to help the arts and cultural sector develop its digital capacity and to produce new
creative media. As part of this, both organisations are actively exploring the legacy of The
Space and we expect to have more details in the autumn.
Investment mechanisms to support creative media
Historically, we have funded a wide range of digital development and innovation. This will
continue through our open funding schemes for example, Grants for the arts.
16 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
We will ensure that our investment activities create an impact and contribute to a sustainable
creative media ecology across England. We will support people and organisations working in
hot spots of creative media activity to provide examples of best practice and opportunities for
sector-wide development, but also support areas across the country in which investment in
producers and infrastructure is less well developed and where there is evidence of need and
potential.
Digital innovation strategic funding A £20 million fund for ‘digital innovation’ was publicly announced in 2011. We can confirm
the following investment areas and allocations to support the creative media policy. This
supports three main areas of investment.
The Space (current pilot) (11/12) £3.5 million (already allocated)
The Space (set aside for future phase) (12-15) £8 million
Digital R&D Fund for the Arts (12-15) £6 million
Creative media infrastructure programme (13-15) £2.5 million
Total Investment £20 million
The Space (November 2012 – March 2015)
The Space (thespace.org.uk) is a groundbreaking initiative developed by the Arts Council and
BBC that has resulted in a new experimental arts service that can distribute creative media
across all platforms and devices.
The Space was designed to address development challenges identified in this policy
particularly in relation to skills development, media production and attracting audiences to
creative media. A £3.5 million media commissioning fund was launched in November 2011.
£2 million came from the BBC to deliver the technology solution, and staff resources to
facilitate publishing work, curation, mentoring, training and editorial support. The BFI created
a film channel within The Space bringing significant curation, expertise and rare archive
material into the service.
We are learning a great deal from the experience of The Space pilot and will be conducting
evaluation into the services’ audiences and impact on participating organisations. Since the
launch of The Space in May 2012, audience feedback and numbers have been encouraging
and we believe the pilot has potential to extend and develop. Both the Arts Council and BBC
want to continue to develop the legacy of The Space further. The Arts Council is committing
17 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy17 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
£8 million from digital strategic funding to support a further phase of The Space, including
support for media production funds to addressing many of the areas of creative media policy,
to run from November 2012 to March 2015. Further details will be announced in the autumn.
The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts (July 2012-March 2015)
This investment explicitly addresses development challenges 8 and 9 of the policy and also
2,3,4,5. Funding to support new creative media content and experiences are in scope in sofar
as they relate to audience engagement and business development.
The themes of the fund are:
• User generated content and social media
Harnessing the power of the internet and social media to reach audiences and to give
them a platform for discussion, participation and creativity.
• Digital distribution and exhibition
Using digital technologies to deliver artistic experiences and content in new ways in
online and place based environments, including exploring international distribution and
exhibition.
• Mobile, location and games
Developing a new generation of mobile and location-based experiences and services,
including games.
• Data and archives
Making archives, collections and other data more widely available to other arts
organisations and the general public.
• Resources
Using digital technologies to improve the way in which arts organisations are run
including business efficiency and income generation and the way in which they
collaborate with each other.
• Education and learning
Developing interactive education and learning resources for children, teachers, young
people, adult learners and arts sector professionals.
18 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
The fund will build on the pilot programme to achieve a step change in the innovative use of
digital technologies by the arts and cultural sector in England. It is unique in marrying cultural
organisations with researchers and technology companies to test innovation propositions and
support the dissemination of the learning.
Creative media infrastructure programme (2013- 2015)
During 2012/13, we will be working with key partners including the National Archives, BFI
and others to support a more coordinated approach to creative media infrastructure. We will
identify how best to deploy the remainder of our £2.5 million strategic funding to address:
• intellectual property and rights support
• archiving skills and support
• data, meta-data infrastructure support for arts content
This funding will not be available until autumn 2013.
Other Arts Council investment to support creative media
Grants for the arts
Grants for the arts is our open-access, year-round lottery funding scheme. Through the
scheme we fund a range of activities that support the creative media policy including: skills
and talent development, media production, distribution, exhibition, clearance of intellectual
property rights costs within the production of a work, audience development and marketing
activity, and archive projects which can demonstrate public access and benefit.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/grants-for-the-arts
Strategic touring
The £45 million Strategic touring programme was launched in 2011 and is designed to
encourage collaboration between organisations, so that more people across England
experience and are inspired by the arts, particularly in places which rely on touring for much of
their arts provision. The Strategic touring fund will accept applications for place-based digital
exhibition that support the aim of engaging audiences in areas with limited arts provision.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/grant-programmes/
strategic-touring-programme
19 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
Creative people and places
The Creative people and places fund will focus our investment in parts of the country where
people’s involvement in the arts is significantly below the national average, with the aim of
increasing the likelihood of participation. This may include creative media activity from arts
and cultural organisations to engage local communities in new and different approaches to
participation.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/commissioned-grants/
creative-people-and-places-fund
Audience focus
The fund, which launched in November 2011, aims to achieve the Arts Council’s goal of
encouraging more people to attend and participate in the arts by helping arts organisations
better understand, retain and expand their audiences including digital engagement. The
Understanding audiences strand of the fund has resulted in an award of £3,268,000 over
three years to Audiences Plus, a consortium of specialist audience development agencies led
by All About Audiences and Audiences London.
This new national consortium, based in Manchester and London, will provide 1:1 support to
organisations, as well as a number of innovative new tools and resources to help them better
understand their current and potential audiences. These will include a national database of
arts attendees, an online audience analytics system and a DIY audience focus toolkit. This
supports the creative media policy by giving organisations better digital tools to understand
and develop their audiences.
A further round of funding will be open in autumn 2012.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/commissioned-grants/
audience-focus
Capital funding
Our £214.6 million capital investment programme including our small scale capital fund will
support organisations to develop resilience by giving them the right buildings, equipment and
technology infrastructure to deliver their work. Some businesses are looking at expanding
digital resources within their buildings and funding can also support capital equipment to
produce and distribute creative media.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/grant programmes/
capital
20 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
Renaissance
Renaissance is the Arts Council’s £43 million investment in the development of regional
museums between 2012 and 2015. The Renaissance strategic support fund is a programme
strand of Renaissance to be developed and aims to address the priorities set out in Culture,
knowledge and understanding and complement our Major partner museum and Museum
development investment. It will focus on any gaps (geographical or otherwise) or
development opportunities across the sector recognising that excellence and the potential for
excellence can be found in museums of all sizes. This can include digital development and
support for the creation and distribution of creative media.
www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/renaissance
Other sources of creative media funding and support
Heritage Lottery Fund
From 1 July 2012, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has made changes to their policy on digital
projects and has introduced new requirements for digital outputs produced with HLF funding
as part of a project. This means that they now fund a stand-alone digital project provided it
meets the aims and criteria of the grant applied for. All projects must meet a strategic aim for
learning: ‘to help people learn about their own and other people’s heritage.’ They state that
‘we are using the term digital output to cover anything you create in your project in a digital
format which is designed to give access to heritage or to help people engage with heritage eg
a website, a set of digital images, an online exhibition or a smart phone app.’ 10
www.hlf.org.uk/digitalpolicyandrequirements
The National Archives
As archive sector leaders, The National Archives provides support for archives across the public
and private sectors: for local government, universities, libraries and museums, and other publicly-
funded organisations; for businesses, charities and other private or commercial institutions.
Advice and guidance is available on the collecting, management and preservation of archives
in all media and on all formats and on engaging with new and diverse audiences and
exploring potential for improving access to collections with case studies providing practical
examples of experiences from across the archive sector.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector
10 Thinking about… Using digital technology in heritage projects, Heritage Lottery Fund, 2011, p6
21 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
Appendix 1 – Definitions
Our Creative media policy aims to:
support an increase in the quality, volume and reach of digital content and
experiences from the arts and cultural sector to support artistic, economic and
audience development and growth.
Creative media as a term has been traditionally used to describe the creative media and digital
content industries producing creative content11 including those companies working in film,
television, radio, interactive content, electronic publishing, software and computer games.
The Arts Council’s use of the term ‘creative media’ refers to:
artistic and cultural works and content that are created for digital platforms and/or
distributed digitally to engage the public.
Creative media encompasses all artforms (including dance, literature, music, theatre, visual
arts, and combined arts) and emerging and innovative hybrid practices that work across
boundaries and disciplines. It also refers to creative media produced by people within the arts,
museums and library sectors.
There are broadly three creative media content areas:
1. ‘Born digital’ work native to and created for the digital space
Art and cultural works and arts practice in which digital technologies and media are an
integral part of the creation of the artwork/experience eg artists film and video, digital
arts, participatory and interactive media, augmented reality games, pervasive and
transmedia storytelling
2. Mediation of existing art and cultural works
Made digital’ activity that can include the digitisation, adaptation, re-staging or extension
of a primary/existing, usually place-based art or cultural work such as play or art
11 Ibid, Skillset, p8
22 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
collection into new kinds of online, film, broadcast, video or interactive media content
and experiences that can be distributed digitally.
3. Arts and cultural reflection – supporting learning and critical context
‘Made digital’ activity that can include critical commentary, cultural journalism, and
learning content that may contextualise or reflect on aspects of arts and culture. This can
include coverage of events and discussions with artists, specialists and curators about
their work. It can involve creative approaches to production and publishing including arts
documentaries and podcasts which incorporate art works and collections within a
broader editorial context
Creative media encompasses the Arts Council’s policy responsibilities for artists’ film and
video, arts broadcasting and digital arts that were agreed with the DCMS and the UK Film
Council in 2000. Key definitions for these terms outlined in Film in England (UK Film Council,
2000) are:
Arts broadcasting
Includes measures to encourage innovation in television, and covers broadband, web-casting
and other new distribution and transmission technologies; collaborative partnerships between
different artforms and broadcast organisations, advocacy and arts journalism and television
schemes designed to showcase other art forms and radio.
Artists’ film and video
Includes moving-image based work that relates to fine art practice, including gallery-based
work, experimental film and animation, artists’ video and work with new technologies. It
should cover related broadcast and narrowcast schemes, production and resources to support
it, such as workshops, managed workspaces, production facilities, distribution and associated
activities such as education and training.
Digital arts
Includes support of production, distribution of moving and still images by artists across the
spectrum of new media including on-line broadcasting and other new distribution and
transmission technologies and multi-media developments.
Please note that the BFI and the Arts Council will be reviewing and updating areas of
policy responsibility above. We will be announcing a new partnership with the BFI in
autumn 2012.
23 | Arts Council England’s Creative media policy
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