thread - we've met with SOLT/UK Theatre, Equity and Arts Council England at this point. this meeting felt different in tone because it started off with contextualisation that they would not be able to give us any answers as talks with government are ongoing. https://twitter.com/NAnarty/status/1276467678522286081

naturally that felt a bit frustrating. i do understand that it's hard to give answers when things are changing so quickly (even though SOLT/UK theatre and Equity were able to). ACE deals with money and money is the central frustration for freelancers rn, which added to the vibe.

some good news:
-Develop Your Creative Practice Grants (R&D grants) could to re-open in 'weeks not months'.
-ACE considers investment in freelancers and their leadership 'essential'
-They're currently working on project grants (which means it's high on the agenda)

however, i still don't understand what ACE is aiming for. what their best case scenario is. or what their plan for how freelancers should be supported is. it sounds like they're still working that out. 'talks are ongoing'. which to me means, this is the time to say what we need.

ACE has local offices and i *would* encourage you to get in touch with them, but i barely even knew there were local ACE offices, and i cannot find any contact details to direct you to. https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/contact-us/our-offices#section-1

which leads me onto my main point: communication.
this is all obvs my opinion, but i do not think ACE is accessible as an organisation. and i do not think they are doing enough to be open to contact and the flow of info to and from independents in the sector.

it's hard to find who to get in touch with with concerns, and as a task force member rightly pointed out, an exclusively text-based flow of information is inaccessible to many many people (eg with dyslexia). the more i think about it the more ridiculous it seems to me.

i absolutely believe them when they said in the meeting that "the independent sector and freelancers are very much in our thinking" but the fact is that NPOs, venues and theatres that receive ACE funding find ACE far more accessible than freelancers + emerging makers.

they said as much by saying that when everything stopped back in March, the people who were getting in touch with ACE with long emails and questions weren't freelancers, they were people from venues. it's wrong that communication channels between freelancers + ACE are so obscure

as well as doing their best to get money back into the industry, ACE is reviewing their long term goals or 'investment principles'. these determine what 'good practice' looks like to them, this applies to individuals and organisations applying for future funding.

they're also working on their 'delivery plan': the document that outlines actions and programmes they will put in place to deliver their 10 year Strategy. it's a 3 year plan that helps the sector understand ACE's priorities and the sorts of funds they might be delivering

this is to give you i)an idea of how ACE works internally and ii)a sense that it's crucial for us to input into this conversation now and tell them what hasn't been working for freelancers (i can forward any urgent thoughts to our task force point of contact with ACE, DM me)

wrt the here and now - they need more information on:
-people who've fallen through the freelancer support cracks (SEISS etc) and what they need
-what they can specifically do to reach out to people who they haven't been talking to

i don't know which freelancers they've been talking to or which networks they regularly draw on for updates, but i do know that they won't be talking to freelancers who find it hard to navigate ACE! and that's exactly who they need to hear from.

i'm going to
-look into getting local ACE contact details made more widely available
-send suggestions for how they can reach out to those they aren't already aware of (thru local venues)
-send them accessibility suggestions bc they really are not doing enough

you can DM me on here or email [email protected] if you have any suggestions for the above points or want to chat about any of this. i know many task force members will have lots more on their minds besides what's struck me. that's all from me for now. x