BBC opens up programmes to artists with new £4m fund

Arts organisations will bid for licence-fee cash to make programmes from a new BBC fund after Tony Hall, Director-General, warned that spending cuts are threatening public access to the arts. Artists and arts bodies from across the UK will be invited to bid for money from the Artists Fund, to create new works which will be broadcast by the BBC on television and online. The fund will distribute £4m in its first year.

The initiative is part of Culture UK, a major BBC creative partnership with the UK’s four arts councils designed to support projects which will “excite the nation about the arts”. Lord Hall warned that the arts faced “serious challenges….

Everyday I hear worrying, new stories that threaten the cultural landscape we’ve all grown up with.” He added: “Far too few of us have access to the arts, there are communities we simply don’t engage with, and that has to change. And for those arts organisations that are serving communities – times have never been harder. If we do nothing, there’ll be places closing their doors for good.”

BBC to fill Arts funding gap The BBC believes it can help fill the funding deficit by supporting projects which have breadth and scale and which can attract new audiences to the arts. Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland are backing Culture UK, which will launch new projects with creative companies such as Leeds’ Slung Low theatre company, the Young Vic, the Derry Playhouse and ballet LORENT in Newcastle.

The BBC’s online platform for live events used to show the Rio Olympics and Glastonbury will be opened to arts organisations, allowing the Manchester International Festival, Hay and Edinburgh festivals to share live moments with audiences around the UK. The BBC will experiment with Virtual and Augmented Reality in films such as The Perfect Place, a collaboration with Scottish Ballet that uses 360-degree technology to pioneer a new way of experiencing dance.

Janet Archer, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland, said: “This initiative with the BBC will help raise awareness of Scotland’s creative excellence and we look forward to seeing the work of Scottish artists and creative organisations reaching bigger audiences through this platform.”