Love art - support it via Donate
National Funding Scheme for the arts
love the art - support it - via Donate
Donate from National Funding Scheme hope to encourage art lovers visiting a gallery, museums or theatres to donate to support the purchase, restoration or exhibition at the institution. Its chair, Robert Dufton, said ”The scheme was created to help UK cultural organisations tackle the challenge of funding in a new, innovative way that engages supporters at the point of emotional engagement and encourages giving,”
At the 11 participating venues there will be a panel or poster explaining the cause or project. Each panel will have a unique code which can be texted from your phone.
Following a comment by Maria Miller, the culture secretary, that arts organisations needed to “get better at asking, not just receiving“. After a series of serious cuts from central government and local authorities to arts funding they are certainly receiving less from statutory sources - some have cut their arts budget by 100%. Robert Dufton, interim chair of the National Funding Scheme, said: “Many arts institutions are struggling. They are not recession proof - our research has showed that 36 per cent don’t have enough funding to meet their main objectives.”
“The scheme will help galleries directly ask the public for money - and give the public a chance to be philanthropic. National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne said: “While there are over 25 million visitors a year to national museums, people in the arts are reluctant to ask for money. The donor will be more inclined to give if we improve the way which we do things, to make it easy. The question is how can philanthropy take new forms?”
This form of crowdfunding can help smaller organisations as Roddy Gauld, CEO of the Octagon, Bolton, said “In a town like Bolton, you don’t have the same access to large donors like you have in bigger cities, so the opportunity for people to donate a small amount and so do often is a really important part of our fundraising strategy.”
11 organisations are part of the launch from March - September and will go national later in the year. Other charitable institutions can register to join the scheme. If you want to donate to any of the projects click on the link below or visit the gallery or museum of course! Gift Aid can be reclaimed and you can keep in touch to see how the fundraising is going.
It will be interesting to see whether the donations pattern mirrors that of other crowdfunding ventures - that campaigns for specific items are easier to fund than running costs.
- The Almeida Theatre (London): staging plays
- The Baltic (Newcastle): for a Learning Fund
- Holburne Museum (Bath): for what it calls an “irresistibly charming and slightly mad” 17th century basket made from thousands of tiny glass beads.
- Kala Sangam (Bradford): funding the 20 year celebrations
- National Portrait Gallery (London): to restore the portraits of World War 1 naval officers by Sir Authur Stockdale Cope
- National Trust: to restore Ham’s benches and plinths and Knole in Flux
- Octagon (Bolton): to modernise its building
- Phoenix Dance Theatre (Leeds): to create new dance performances
- Science Museum (London): to update the launchpad gallery
- Southbank Centre (London): to restore the Royal Festival Hall Organ
- Victoria and Albert Museum: to restore the 19th century cast courts