ACE Emergency Fund Guidelines

On Tuesday 31 March 2020, Arts Council England published the guidance documents for Emergency Funds. The following has been taken from ACE website: artscouncil.org.uk/covid19

Webinars (spoken, captioned and BSL)

YouTube- Introduction to the Emergency Funds

YouTube - Grantium and Access Support

YouTube - Individuals Funds guidance

Funding for individuals 

We want to support artists, creative practitioners and freelancers as best we can in this crisis. We're making £20 million of financial support available to individuals, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months.

More information on Individuals here. 

Funding for organisations outside of the National Portfolio

£50 million will be made available to organisations that are not in receipt of regular funding from the Arts Council. Organisations who have applied to National Lottery Project Grants are welcome to apply for this support. 

More information on Organisations here.

ACE Blogs  

ACE Chief Executive Darren Henley blogs about their emergency support for artists and organisations: Darren Henley’s blog post 

ACE Director of Diversity, Abid Hussain, explains how they’re keeping inclusivity at the heart of their response to Covid-19: Abid Hussain’s blog post

ACE new thread on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ace_national/status/1245019073949433857

FAQS AND ADVICE GIVING 

ACE also wanted to clarify what they’ve made clear in the guidance about how they will be handling advice giving. They’ve said:

Relationship Managers, our Customer Services team and other Arts Council staff will not be able to offer specific, one-to-one advice about how to write your application for this fund. We have designed this application process to be as straightforward as possible, requesting only the information we need. Our Customer Services team can help you to use the online application form, and to make or update your applicant profile.

Accessible Resources for ACE ERF Applicants

ACE has shared these accessible resources for Emergency Fund applicants for circulation:

Three fantastic videos by Graeme Calvert, all with BSL and captions, in which he talks through the funds, individuals’ application form, Grantium, and Access Support provision. I think these will be great for a lot of people – someone talking you through it seems much easier & warmer than a 13-page download:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzzBvi5D8s7MiapQVSBW21PgAvF6Dd7D3

Information on Access Support as well as downloadable Easy Read guidance (way better than the standard ‘difficult read’ guidance regardless of access needs):

For Individuals: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/financial-support-artists-creative-practitioners-and-freelancers#section-5

For organisations: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/financial-support-organisations-outside-national-portfolio#section-5

Full BSL guidance videos for the individuals’ fund: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzzBvi5D8s7MdG24a1cvzC05f4ENqlHpq