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Hi me again. We at #FreelanceTaskForce also had a meeting with @ace_national today. I was facilitating that meeting so couldn't live tweet, but I will do a little summary under here because it was a useful meeting.
@FreelanceTForce
@FreelanceTForce
We met with Amy Vaughan (Director for Touring & East), Maria Crosson (who works on Project Grants) and Kelly Parish (who works on Developing Your Creative Practice) to chat about Reforming Project Grants.
ACE decided to re-open PG to get money out to sector and focus on integrating changes in the longer term.
For ACE's Covid guidance: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/ACNLPG_supplementary_note_31July_2020_0.pdf
The process for how applications are assessed was talked about as well as what is eligible and ineligible for funding.
For ACE's Covid guidance: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/ACNLPG_supplementary_note_31July_2020_0.pdf
The process for how applications are assessed was talked about as well as what is eligible and ineligible for funding.
ACE have a team of Relationship Managers but they only have time to give quite generic advice, not bespoke support. They are looking into having a cohort of sector based advisers who could work alongside them to support communities and hopefully remove some barriers.
Currently there are indie producers giving up their time for free to support bid writing, this would help with this problem as National Lottery funding cannot be used to fund activity retrospectively.
ACE advice giving sessions from RMs should be BSL interpreted and captioned. An idea was floated by Amy to put a schedule of when these are happening @ace_national's website and communicating more via social media, which was met with enthusiasm.
A comment was made about diversity/representation at ACE and suggestion that @ace_national take part in @TheatreCTA's #PullUpOrShutUp campaign. Importance of knowing ACE funding is 'for you' and ACE diversity encouraging diversity of applications.
It was raised that Grantium is inaccessible. ACE also have to use same system on other end + hands are tied in terms of sheer cost of changing it to something else, it is here to stay. Work us being done to streamline Grantium and Access Support available to use Grantium.
DYCP will return later this year, early stages of thinking of changes that will be made to this programme. ACE website will be updated as soon as any changes are made.
It was raised that often the named applicant isn't the one writing the funding bid and data should be collected on who is doing this work.
Q - Have ACE considered letting people upload video to apply for grants?
A - They are tied to Grantium at the moment but are talking about and will be consulting on it. Ideally people could apply in a format that is good for them. And new ways need to not create bias in process.
A - They are tied to Grantium at the moment but are talking about and will be consulting on it. Ideally people could apply in a format that is good for them. And new ways need to not create bias in process.
ACE would like to use the Task Force to formally consult on reforming Project Grants, particularly keen to chat to those based outside of London, disabled people and BAME. Some budget being sourced for this.
End of summary.
End of summary.
Anyone who is on the #FreelanceTaskForce who becomes part of this consultation group - it would be great if you can keep the process as transparent as possible. @FreelanceTForce
