Cllr Martin Mullaney has announced the Emerging Festivals Fund – grants of £500 to £4,999 for new niche festivals. Applications have to be in by 4 February, which seems like incredibly short notice for what this is. More details here.
Might this be useful to the folks at the recent The Challenge of Change event? So what sort of small festivals is the city currently lacking?
It’s probably worth seeing this in light of the comments from Neil Rami of Marketing Birmingham that I linked to the other day. When asked which cities have marketed themselves effectively through culture he named Barcelona, Berlin, Glasgow and:
Rotterdam, as they have come from nowhere. They have spent eight years capacity building their ability to host festivals and in that time have gone from something like 8 each year to 109. They saw festivals as a way of building a career for an artist and for telling a story. They now import festivals, poaching them from other cities as well as starting their own.
You have to submit 2 years of accounts, so I don’t see this as particularly useful for new festivals.
OTOH old festivals, like Moseley, do not qualify as they are too old. Go figure.
I would be very interested in the take up and actual grants…
This fund seems ill conceived on several levels –
– there is not enough time for an organisation to produce the highly detailed application that they’re asking for by the start of February. The brief asks for a marketing plan, a business plan, and plans for linking with the rest of the local community. These things don’t come together quickly, especially in new organisations.
– how many new festivals are going to have two years of audited accounts and/or be consolidated as not for profit companies? As an example at Birmingham Photospace we’d love to take advantage of an opportunity such as this but we’ve only been active for a year and we’re only now on the verge of consolidating our legal status.
– £500 to £5000 is peanuts, much too small an amount to set up even a tiny festival and this brief specifically wants events lasting multiple days with the sort of cultural reach that would bring people into the city
If I was being cynical I’d say the whole thing seems like it could be set up with very specific organisations in mind.
(By the way the city needs a Photography Festival)
Matt – just saw a comment from Martin saying “One of the projects I am pushing in my cabinet role is the creation of a photographic centre in Birmingham” – http://www.thestirrer.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5827&start=200 Worth a chat if you’ve not been in touch already.
As for the fund, I’d say it’d seem to suit existing organisations that need an incentive/safety net to encourage them to step up to larger events. There are probably loads of them out there, I wouldn’t take it personally. There’s always the option to buddy up with someone a little more established. Bearing in mind where the cash is coming from (the Working Neighbourhoods Fund) a bit of caution on their part is probably to be expected.
Sorry if I came across as a bit grouchy, it is great that funding opportunities like this are coming forward, especially from a council which hasn’t been that forthcoming in supporting the arts in the past.
I do think Martin is a good advocate for the arts in Brum, we have talked and he has a lot of enthusiasm for the development of local arts in general and for photography in particular which is deeply encouraging.
The idea of newer orgs buddying up with more established operations is a good one but I think there’s simply not enough time for that to be arranged before the deadline.
‘Rotterdam, yes. The city, and its creative emergence, has been pored over by many arts and creative industry consultants.
I have attended for many years now its Film Festival and associated Film project, Cine Mart, and will do one more time at the end of January.
Cine Mart is a fine example of the Rotterdam approach and has been imitated by, and exported to, many other Festivals around the world.
For some background, have a read of my trip last year – http://www.birminghampost.net/birmingham-business/birmingham-business-news/creative-industries-news/2009/02/08/rotterdam-film-festival-offers-ideal-opportunities-65233-22882945/