Merchandising, is it a dirty word?

making it work Hilary B arts

My "go and see" was, to look at the world of selling art, how do artists,

in the widest sense, do that?

To begin with I thought about the words that are used, and why do they strike terror, disdain, contempt, in some artists?

Don't we want our work to be seen, don't we want to make a living?

Merchandise, merchandising

Engage in the business of a merchant

Selling goods or ideas, especially in a retail situation

Momento

A reminder of past events

Keepsake

A small item kept in memory of the person who originally owned it, or gave it.

Souvenir

A thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, a place or event

Oh I see nothing here about quality, changing the world, enriching peoples lives, challenging peoples views. But hang on, we do want people to remember our work, stay connected, especially when as B arts does we create ephemeral work, site specific theatre that only lasts in the memory, digital or real, so if they went away with something, or could buy something later, or in advance, that would seem to be OK?

“The benefits of selling art as products are huge as it effectively gets your art out there and increases your potential audience around the world. It only takes one collector who purchased an art tie to go on to purchase a large original at several thousand pounds for the whole project to make sense, and this does happen."

I can see how this applies to 2D art. How could this apply to site specific theatre, well we could work with images/photographs/designs from our shows and put them on ties!?

Some comments from artists who sells stuff.....

“The pitfalls only appear if your lose control of the product range. So, for example, if a company produces 50,000 cards (as The Eden Project did of my work) and then fails to sell them, that stock could end up in a bargain bucket, dragging down your market value. To avoid this ‘dead stock’ situation, most companies are now using the art-ondemand technique. It means less profit per item but no dead stock and therefore better profit  margins.

“The cost to us as artists to license using Zazzle is only time. There are no setup or running costs and we are now free to concentrate on developing projects using the technology.”

“I sell T-shirts and other products through my website and also created an online T-shirt shop (www.art4shirts.com). Over the years I have added more and more designs, and now have several sections to which my painting site links.

“I produced my first online T-shirts when I put my Japanese print collection online (www.surimono.com). I was looking for a way to market the site and use the fantastic images I had collected over the years. I opened an account with www.cafepress.com, and they gave me a free online shop where I could add images to their products. It is very simple to open and operate: open a free account, upload an image and then apply it to the Cafépress products. You can print on everything from T-shirts, calendars, postcards, bags, clocks, aprons and button badges to fridge magnets. Cafépress does all the work – take the order online, print the item, post the item and put the profit markup into your account.”

All this sounds interesting, but it's very clear that it needs a time commitment from someone, either the artist themselves, or perhaps in MIW case a person who could work for a group of artists/companies?

So then I went off on a go and see on the Internet, where else do artists sell their work?

Etsy Tons of independent shops selling, art, craft, vintage. Under the "art" category;

Art Zines, Collage & Mixed Media, Custom Portraits, Decorative Arts, Drawing & Illustration, Figurines & Art Objects, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Prints & Posters, Sculpture. There are no membership fees with Etsy. It costs $0.20 to list an item for 4 months, or until it sells. Once you sell your item they collect a 3.5% fee on the sale price.

Fees for listings and transactions are accrued on your monthly Etsy bill. At the end of each month they add up all your fees, and email your monthly statement to you. You must pay your bill by the 15th of the next month using either the credit card on file or PayPal.

Etsy has a reputation for being craft orientated, and designer focussed, but has huge numbers of buyers internationally, get ready for knowing about packaging and posting costs, and trips to the post office, or even your own man with a van service, there are planting wanting your business.

I looked next at postcards since it seemed an easy way in to the world of merchandising as pre publicity and cheaper point of sale at an event. There are more sites moo.com I us them as an example. It just needs time and a source of photos and a good eye for what people would buy. And to put the costs into your project budget in advance.

moo.com       

Postcards

10            £6.59 (£5.49 excl. VAT)       Deluxe £23.99 (£19.99 excl. VAT)

20            £13.18 (£10.98 excl. VAT).               £47.98 (£39.98 excl. VAT)

50            £26.39 (£21.99 excl. VAT).               £95.99  (£79.99 excl. VAT)

100            £43.99. (£36.66 excl. VAT)               £138.00 (£115.00 excl VAT) spec offer in Jan

Can buy short runs, so no dead stock issues, quick turn around, can buy packs of cards with different images.

People who go to music gigs always tel, you that T shirts are a good thing to sell. So I looked at the issue back stock. (If anyone would like a Stoke100 Tshirt B arts has a box of them, orange XLarge, we now give them away!!!)

T shirts  a variety of sites/companies offer this service....

Tshirtdrop's print on demand service, makes T-shirt outsourcing easy.

If you are a new or established T-shirt designer and are looking to outsource your garment printing needs, then our print on demand service is the one for you.

The process is simple :

You sell a T-shirt or garment design through your website, eBay, Zazzle or other site.

Send Tshirtdrop the order information, via our dedicated Print on Demand email address.

Sit back and relax whilst we; Pick the required garment, Print the design, Pack the garment, Post directly to your customer.

You receive an email confirming your order has been completed.

We invoice you our standard flat rate charge per garment.

All orders come through to our print queue and are printed on demand.

So whether you need 1 Print per month or 500 Prints we treat your order with the same importance as any other.

It was quite hard to get to the actual cost for a T shirt without ordering one, anyone got a Making It Work design in they would like to tryout?

Now I went off into to world of merchandising proper, things you can get printed with your design on, typically at the low end of this are pens, that say B arts working for change, office Knicks Knacks that scud around and get given away free as a way of getting your website and logo out there. However there are some other items you get designs rather than promotional stuff printed on, perhaps an image from a show I'm thinking?

Zazzle

Slightly posh version of custom print items and all sorts of things, iPad cases, cards, T-shirts, etc etc

CafePress

As above, but it's a mixture of Etsy and Zazzle.  

Then I wandered off into the world of 2D art, which could again be images from a show, event.

Artfinder

Is a marketplace for people to discover and buy affordable original art online, from independant galleries and artists.

They market the site via twitter and Facebook and have an iPhone app.

They call themselves a global marketplace, have over 13,000 followers on fbook,

The selling points that you the buyer are supporting the artist and nurturing new talent.

They have a free returns policy, and you can buy gift cards, they divide art up into many, many categories all to enable the buyer to find what they are looking for.

Artists receive up to 70% of the fee for the work.

This is what ArtFinder says....

If you are an artist and want to improve your chances of being accepted by Artfinder, here are three easy recommendations:

1) Your story is almost as important as the quality of your art.  A good story sells, and collectors love to know that the artist is thoughtful, passionate, committed, or maybe crazy, whatever is their preference.

2) You manage your own store on Artfinder, and your storefront is created from the images of your art. By submitting high quality images you show that you care about quality, and are able to put together a quality presentation.

3) Selling online is about showing your best side. All artist produce works in their portfolio from time to time that are less strong. That's okay. But show us that you understand that it's about quality, not quantity. Bad quality work will detract from your good work. Know when an artwork is not ready for prime time.

I find the first recommendation very thought provoking, it is what all good sales gurus tell you, what is your story? It is the hardest thing for a hard working arts company to turn around and tell their own story, well it seems that way from here at B Arts. Which makes me think that we would need to put some time, effort and thought into this, but as they say may reap some dividends.

Then I went off and looked around at what people are doing  here.

I visited the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Newcastle Borough Museum and Art Gallery. They all have shops attached, and my heart sank, the home of heritage tat, but with some hidden art work in there which probably doesn't sell since there is so little of it.

Although to be fair to Newcastle it is the stuff you see first when you go in through the door, and it has a modern feel.

Maybe in funky Birmingham or Manchester  there is something different? Sounds like a shopping opportunity.

Grand Union (Birmingham)

Have an online shop as part of their website, they sell artists multiples, prints, photographs, soundtracks, called Editions.

I have a visit planned! More on that...later.

Here are some images that expand my thinking.

Where to stock your museum, gallery shop.

Those words are what I fear will happen when we sell our work, it just means we have to sell it and not put it in the hands of marketing companies.

Susan always say, take stuff out of your note sketchbooks and sell it.

So how would we do that? Anyone fancy this on their phone cover?

Could this be a card, just needs a cheeky phrase?

This years Christmas card from B arts?

A new tea towel anyone?

New curtain design?

Now I see that this is just the start. There are no hard figures in here,how much do artists make from selling their work, what do you make from T shirts, multiples, cards etc.

Maybe this could be part of our next phase, for MIW consortium to  try some of this?

Some further thoughts on our attitudes to merchandising/marketing....

AUSTERITY, I think it's infectious, it closes down our aspirations, closes down our available resources, cramps our style, things have to go in the face of rising costs and reduced income, the easy option is merchandising/marketing

PERCEIVED POVERTY, I think there is a general assumption that N Staffs is poor, that the middle classes are the people who buy stuff, the middle class in N Staffs is small, so don't bother trying to sell stuff. A vicious closing down of aspirations.

LACK OF RISK TAKING, in a works where everything  is restricted then risk taking is not top dog, yet what have we got to lose?

REDUCTION IN ARTS BUDGETS, companies are attempting to over deliver top quality arts on a reduced budget, so there develops a tendency to ignore areas of the budget which may be perceived as peripherals, marketing, training.

MARKETING BUDGETS, they are easily taken out, and therefore the time is lost to develop this area, leading to a reduction of the possible income form different sources.

DEPENDING ON KNOWN CIRCLES OF AUDIENCES, at times of shortage, of time, people, money, we rely on the known, the people we already know and can easily contact.

A definite recipe for NO GROWTH, no growth in possible audiences for the work and reducing the market for it.

NO ACKNOWLEDGING OF GLOBAL AUDIENCE FOR THE WORK, within the structures of austerity the company may feel that it has no place in a global market, perhaps a false economy.

3 Learning points

Put time into your project plan for identifying, producing, the merchandising in advance

Do the selling yourself, the artist is the best person to do this

Buy in targeted help, eg writing blurb, or something you don't can't do.

Hilary H.

Creative Businesses in Sheffield - some reflections

The Making It Work consortium went on a group visit to the Catalyst consortium in Sheffield in January. There’s a post below that outlines who we met and what happened on the day, so I’m giving a more personal perspective.

The first thing we learnt was that collaboration depends on making time to work together. In meeting two of the partners (Site Gallery and Yorkshire Artspace), one of the things that they were experiencing was the difficulty in carving out time to work on the consortium programme together.

Secondly, that Sheffield has built an infrastructure of spaces, activity and people consistently over several decades. What is now the Cultural Industries Quarter provides new and established organisations with an identity, networks and support as well as being part of a significant economic sector within the city.  In Sheffield the Quarter also has an identity beyond the city, and even has some currency as a visitor attraction in its own right. This has given us much food for thought for our involvement in initiatives around the Stoke Cultural Quarter.

The visit made me aware of how Stoke lacks middle-scale independent organisations such as Site, Music In The Round and Yorkshire Artspace. These, stretched as they are, do have capacity to support emergent artists and organisations. Without similar scale organisations in Stoke (all of the larger organisations are part of the local authority or commercial) it is the networks we are building that can create similar capacity in Stoke.

Art Sheffield was a fascinating model, a consortium project in Sheffield that delivered enough value back to those investing time in developing it – such as listings services and a real focus for the participating organisations in reaching new audiences.

Finally, when faced with agendas that all seem vital – such as setting up membership schemes, crowdfunding, targeting potential patrons, capital projects – the Executive Director of Site Gallery held onto something that resonated with us all:

What is the most important thing to do for this business?

Trevelyan Wright, B-Arts

Bitjam go and see Dec 2013

The Pervasive Media Studios in Bristol.

At bitjam we have been thinking about who we would visit as part of our MIW ‘go and see’s’. We could easily list a plethora of places, companies, start ups, hives of geeks and more that we would want to visit but realised that these visits needed a purpose.

Some of the aims of the go and sees:

• To gain a better understanding of a company and how it works in the chosen sector.
• What is it’s business model and how is it working for them. This includes how it might have changed over the life of the company.
• (if an established organisation) How have they changed and adapted to be ahead of the competition.
• If part reliant on funding, how has this changed and how have they adapted their business model accordingly.
• To come away with experience of another organisation in the same sector or field of interest as our own.
• Feed back to the rest of the MIW consortium the visit, findings and three keys thoughts about the trip.

After narrowing down our selection we approached the pervasive media studio in Bristol.

The PM Studio are part of the exciting Watershed complex that houses cinema, conference spaces, cafe and exhibition spaces.

The Pervasive Media Studio hosts a community of artists, creative companies, technologists and academics exploring experience design and creative technology. It is a collaboration with University of West of England and University of Bristol, managed by Watershed.

They have been on our radar for some time as leaders in this field.  The MIW go and sees have provided us with the opportunity to take some time away from interactive tech and spend the day down there. This is what we discovered……..

The Studios function on a mixture of hot desk spaces and fixed tenures for small or startup business, these can range from companies/individuals being there for anything from one month to three years.

In there you have an eclectic mix of tech startups, from individuals busily hacking and coding to create an interactive apps through to companies building revolutionary spherical midi controlled instruments.

All of these work together in the same space and all practice what they call being ‘professionally interruptible’. Basically, anyone can grab a chat with them, exchange ideas, bounce ideas off each other and chat to visitors.

This was extremely exciting for us and we realised that was something that we practice day to day already. Some of the best ideas come about through being open to interruption.

We chatted to Verity McIntosh who is the PM Studios producer at length about how they operate , function, get funding, IP issues, partnership working and the future.

It’s clear that the have been on a long journey.

One thing that really stood out for us was how they are now a service provider for Bristol University. This has taken some time but the Uni realises the importance of the space within the city and what it provides in the world of tech and tech start ups opportunities.

As a result the Uni contributes towards rent for the space, that equates to so many months a year. This is also the case with the Council.

This is something that is a huge aim for ourselves and our new Innovation centre (bitjam Innovation Qube).

As a result the companies, individuals and teams that populate the PM Studios do not pay for their space. This came as a huge surprise to us. We were planning on developing a model of working in the Innovation Qube where we offer hot desk space for individuals and companies to hire from us. Since visiting the PM studios we have decided against that and go with a curation of the people and the space. This is after seeing the huge benefits to all involved form this model. While we were visited you had magicians working with coders and developers. This possibly wouldn't have happened if the space was commercial.

In this instance Verity acts like a curator or almost a chef, hand picking through lots of applications from people wanting to work in the space and envisaging how they might work and bounce of the others occupying the studios.

We then got the opportunity to chat to half of the teams and groups there, the variety was impressive and not what we expected.

Through these talks we realised that even if people spend months or years working out of the space to then move on and away, they always return when possible and site the PM Studios as their spiritual home. This means that the reach of the studio is far bigger than just it’s City and surroundings. When you consider that on average 140+ people come through the doors to work each year, this advertising and spreading of their message is vast.

As our visit came to an end we made our way to a lovely gastro pub to eat pulled pork, drink mulled cider and try to process what we saw/liked/will take away from this.

The three key points for us were:

• Being professionally interruptible. We need to be more interruptible. Come and pop your head in, say hello and lets bounce ideas.
• Offer free workspace. There’s space within a business model to allow this and the benefits can outweigh the monetary value in many ways.
• Curate. Select and choose who works in the space, encourage interesting partnerships, take risks and watch the results.  

I would personally like to thank Verity and all the staff and people we spoke to during our visit to the Pervasive Media Studio. It was close (very close) to Christmas and amongst the decorations going up and secret santas, the took the time to take us round and allow us to interrupt.

Ben and Carl

Bitjam ltd.

Helen Jenkins, Facilitator – Go and See trip to Sheffield 7 January 2014

The first week back to work after the Christmas holidays can be a real drag.  All that time overindulging on food, family and friends is swapped for the hard reality of work plans and the daily commute.  Usually I find it hard to get myself motivated at this time of year.  But this year was different – my first day back at work was spent sharing knowledge and information with some of the most generous people and organisations possible; and it has made me vow to make sure that I share as much as I can this year with others too.

A big part of my role as facilitator for Making it Work was organising a ‘Go and See’ trip.  The purpose of ‘Go and See’ was to get together with organisations who could both challenge our thinking about fundraising and income generation for the arts and also to share knowledge and experience.  Finding a model of funding which works is a massive challenge for arts organisations in Stoke-on-Trent, and we knew we were not alone in this. We wanted to visit a city or region where the challenges we face would be understood and crucially where we may be able to find some solutions.

We choose to visit Sheffield after much debate and thought.  We wanted to visit somewhere of a similar size to Stoke-on-Trent, where there was thriving cultural industry and scene which had been born out of industrial decline.  We wanted to learn how the arts had thrived and what lessons we could take back to our own organisations and also to the region. Quite a tall order!

We choose Sheffield and on 7^th January a minibus set off from The Barracks en route across the hills to Sheffield, a beautiful but bumpy journey.  We had a packed schedule for the day and planned to meet our counterparts in a variety of organisations ranging from National Portfolio Funded galleries with vast experience of income generation to brand new organisations who had never embarked on any fundraising before.  We met with:

·         Site Gallery

·         Yorkshire Artspace

·         Bloc Projects

·         Access Space

·         Sheffield Printmakers

·         Music In the Round

It is hard to sum up the learning, as it was wide and varied.  For myself, the visit reinforced that every size of organisation is having to look at all of their income streams and then decide where and how to focus its resources to maximise income. What was clear was that many of the traditional sources of income, for example trusts and foundations, are being used more and more by arts organisations and I wonder how long this can be sustained.  It was fascinating to hear that some groups have decided to steer clear of Arts Council funding, citing stiff competition and the fact that the funding is largely restricted to projects as their reason.

Without exception there was huge generosity of spirit, time and knowledge from all of the people we met with in Sheffield.  We found issues similar to our own but also great spirit and will.  Of course we did not find the solution to our funding need, but then again we did not expect to, but we have made contacts that I hope will remain and grow.

Thank you to everyone we met – it was a fascinating and interesting day.  Please do come and make the journey to Stoke to see us soon!

Restoke – Go and See; 
Liam Evans-Ford - Creative Producer, Blood and Chocolate

We have begun our go and see’s starting with a trip to the picturesque city of York where we had heard rumours of a wonderful promenade performance with a cast of 200 community and professional performers called ‘Blood and Chocolate’ (http://www.pilot-theatre.com/?idno=1183) The performance was repeated over three weeks and sold out before the opening night (hence we never got to see it!). So we were interested in how the city embraced this participatory project and if there was any learning we could bring back to Stoke-on-Trent. 

We met with Liam Evans-Ford Creative Producer for Blood and Chocolate and based at Pilot Theatre.

Pilot Theatre initiated the project, having been established for over 30 years they primarily produce touring work with an emphasis of reaching young people. Pilot wanted to undertake a new project which connected with York, where the company is based, and tell a meaningful story for the city. As an NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) they receive regular arts council funding, and teamed up with 2 other NPOs to deliver this project (Slung Low and Theatre Royal). An interesting find about Pilot Theatre was their pioneering approach to technology, they have developed techniques in successfully streaming live performance and are now employed by both arts organisations and local authorities (to broadcast political events) which means they have been able to diversify their income streams.

Although working in a very different structure to Restoke, we were still interested in what can be achieved in the duration of a participatory projects. Successes in this particular project seemed to lie in Liam’s understanding of the local culture and community through having delivered large-scale community arts performance (he was also creative producer for York Mystery Plays in 2012). He puts success in private giving down to finding the ‘fit’ of a project with a business. Blood and Chocolate told a story of the Lord major sending Rowntree chocolate tins to York’s soldiers fighting in the war. This story, along with strong community engagement, meant they secured a donation from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) as well as additional income and support from a local chocolate themed attraction as well as a new independent chocolate house. 

There were many different levels of involvement, from enticing corporate packages to simple stickers in windows and a donation of £50 from businesses on the performance route. Incentives included logos on promotional material (including many bus sides) and acknowledgement in the souvenir brochure. It was noted that business and culture seem to be pretty intertwined here, with people from both sectors meeting and networking regularly allowing informal introductions of project ideas and partnership building. The engagement was a huge part of this and Liam acknowledges the huge culture of participation in arts projects in York. He puts this down to the tradition of the Mystery Plays, which would originally be acted out by the community and hosted by local businesses in a promenade procession through the city. This tradition seems to have stuck along with its appeal to local businesses. 

One of the most interesting things we learnt from Liam, however, was their attention to the skills of volunteers and participants who were catalysed to take on some of the challenges of marketing, building audiences and fundraising. This included teams of volunteer photographers documenting the process, people handing out flyers and manning sandwich boards during on site rehearsals and even the participants fundraising themselves for the project (eg. cake sales, ‘click through’ blogs and badge making!)

So this led us to think about the culture of participation in Stoke-on-Trent. We have had great success recently in gathering a cast of over 40 performers, not to mention crew and volunteers for our last project and for the arrival of the Olympic Torch in Stoke-on-Trent in 2012 our consortium cohorts B Arts paraded through the streets with over 1000 community performers! Not to mention the countless choirs, drama groups, dance schools and arts groups in the region…. so participation is well and truly alive here too!

Community is perhaps the real key for Restoke to connect to routes of private giving, both from individuals and local business. The participants in our work reach further out into the community than we ever could alone, offering important and real networks. With a bit of extra planning and foresight this resource (for want of a better word!) could be utilised in building our audiences, funding and impact. This potential in making the most out of the communities that come together through our work is something that really excites us, not only is it beneficial to the income of the project but also empowers the people involved and deepens the level of investment they have in the project.

We are already in the process of applying this knowledge to our work as we sit here writing a new funding bid, we’re taking a (small) leap in building private giving into our project which will see us experiment with some of the learning that ‘Making it Work’ has allowed us to explore. Fingers crossed!!

Creative Junctions…..

As part of PiCL’s go and see activity I went to see Creative Junction CIC. Founded in 2006/7, they were one of the first de-merged Creative Partnerships offices, with 12 staff at its busiest. 

After the demise of CP, they were also left having to look at how to generate all their income and although were successful in securing a range of funding from different sources it was no where near the same level.  

In the last 2/3 years they have managed to diversify their income stream and receive funding from a range from Local Authority commissions, small grants and corporate programmes and they are managing a relatively equal split between these income streams with commissioning being the slightly larger stream.

The programme I was most interested in and the reason for the visit was their programme with SEGRO, who sponsor a Young Artists programme, now in its third year. The relationship has developed over time and is a large piece of work for the organisation with showcases and exhibitions as well as the artists and work with young people.  The relationship has been built with SEGRO’s marketing department, which for me triggered ideas to consider on how PiCL’s offer to business will support their marketing activity as well as social responsibility strategies. One of my actions following this visit, is to spend time developing the approach we take when approaching companies and further consider how we frame our activity and projects.

I was interested to know if they would be trying to roll out the model, they were hoping to but had reservations about the right organisations to approach and that there was still a large bridge to be built between this type of programme and big corporations, who, despite having a presence in the area were more difficult to contact and work with. They feel that that medium sized locally rooted companies were more likely to engage however there is then the challenge of available funds and budgets.

One other bit of key learning for me was how flexible the organisation needs to be and to that they have become very entrepreneurial themselves and trying something new by approaching an ambitious programme with a social enterprise focus, partnering with organisations to promote and encourage learning and skills development that will aim to develop relationships with larger businesses in the area to deliver on these outcomes.

I felt acutely aware that PiCL have yet to grasp how commissioning could fit into PiCL’s future funding model and that I need to invest some time in building relationships with commissioners so they can see how we are able to deliver the projects and objectives,  things like young people led creative events and consultation. I also need to ensure PICL is in a position to tender or take up those opportunities as they arise.

My biggest reflection was that there wasn’t a magic formula and that PiCL are on the right track, trying to offer a range of ways in which people can engage with, buy from and support PiCL, but what we need as an organisation is more capacity to build relationships, get our offers and name out there further and shout about what we do and then actually ASK for the work and funding.

My next exploration will be into Arts and Business to see how they have supported organisations to develop their Arts based training model, see how those organisations are faring and if that learning can be implemented at PiCL.

Erica Love, Director. 

Total Transparency?
At the last consortium meeting we had a lively discussion about how much transparency we can, and should, display as small arts organisations. This got me thinking - well surely in the era of Freedom of Information and Wikileaks nothing less than total transparency will do.
Well, yes and no. As an organisation, I agree. As a charity and company limited by guarantee our accounts, trustees reports and board meetings are matters of public record. There is very little about the company that isn't either in the public domain or could be put there very easily. Any project that has received public funds in turn makes our reports publicly available (eg via FOI requests).
But I would draw a distinction between information on the company and information on individuals. Our annual accounts show total salary bill, not what each person earns. What we paid each individual artist who worked for the company is likewise aggregated.
And I'm not sure I'd like to see a 'see salaries' button on our website. We support a lot of emerging artists and early career professionals. They go on and use our name, quite rightly, in securing future work. They probably over-achieved and were underpaid in the work they did, I'm certainly happy for them to present what they did for us in the best possible light.
Likewise, I would like to present myself and the work of the company in the best possible light to potential funders and partners. It's part of my job to get doors opened to senior people in the public sector. They are usually paid more than I am, and when they go our website to look at our work I wouldn't like what I earn to be necessarily one of the first things they see.
Trevelyan Wright, Executive Director.

bITjAM - What can we learn from the last 18 years of Lottery Funding in Stoke on Trent?

I thought it would be useful to examine lottery funding data spanning back to the heady days of 1995 to get a sense of the successful grants and also get a sense of the type of work that lottery funding used to support. I'm not quite sure how this data fits into helping Arts Organisations moving forward with seeking new ways of generating funds for projects; I'm open to ideas.

Using the Lottery section of the Culture website and searching for Stoke on Trent reveals around 18 years of data which reveals 1223 projects totalling £117,872,724.

Now I thought it would be best to ask a range of questions against this data including:

• Which organisations got what amounts?
• Which types of projects were successful?
• Who funded the projects?
• What was the pattern of funding over time?
• What are the key phrases that repeat in the project descriptions?

The data is not complete as a number of organisations may have selected to keep their funding application confidential so we have to take that into account.

The charts below show some of the data in visual form using Google Charts (it's quick and simple once I completed a little analysis). I also used a few extra tools up my sleeve to link Company names in the list to Companies house to get a sense of the types of company formations involved (Limited by Shares, CiC etc). I've also ran the project descriptions through a little analysis to get a sense of keywords that get repeated in the project titles, I looked for Named Entities rather than the usual word frequency (the type you see in Wordles). This analysis reveals a little more about the meaning of the high frequency words/phrases in the text .

It's up for grabs what we learn from this data, for me the named entities has been insightful however there's more analysis to be done, what can you find? How can we use data like this to move forward?

Here's the link to full data.

Funding over time:

(There were approx 961 awards given to groups with no formal structure recognised in Companies house although company names may have changed, but NOT 961 individual groups, just awards, some groups were awarded more than once. Data to be further analysed)

Restoke – Trepidations

We have now sat round several tables at our fellow arts organisation’s bases, discussing our collective futures and the impact of our development on the wider community of Stoke-on-Trent. This alone is a rare act, and we are both excited and humbled to be in the company of some great creative minds to be addressing the contentious issues of funding, as part of this consortium.

Restoke have been lucky to have been funded over several projects by Arts Council England, matched by support from local authorities and other public funding streams, and now through this Catalyst programme been given this opportunity to ‘Make it Work’ in terms of building our fundraising capacity. This programme coincides of course with huge cuts to subsidised art and a push for us to “hammer home the value of culture to our economy” (Maria Miller, Culture Secretary) But what does this mean for organisations, like Restoke, who work outside of commercially attractive settings?

Restoke are nomads, we are three separate artists, we have our own individual work and agendas, we disperse, we come together, we feel this makes us stronger. We don’t have a base, we don’t have overheads or staff, any time that we invest in Restoke outside of our projects is usually unpaid. But we know why we are here and we look towards a better future for Stoke-on-Trent…. However, we want to be a part of this bright vision and for that we need to be stronger and more resilient to further cuts in government funding.

We usually work site-specifically, in old/redundant/cold/outdoor spaces, we beg borrow and steal (shhh) spaces to rehearse in and often end up hugely indebted to the people and places that help us with this task.

We must admit, looking to diversify funding streams with an emphasis on private giving feels like a giant leap, and we are not without reservations. We struggle to see how our work, which is often socially driven, can become attractive to private investors. We wonder how much time we can give up to the pursuit of this alternative funding. How much time should we be taking away from our artistic practice and development. When do artists get to just BE artists?

Luckily we have been granted this opportunity and time through the Catalyst programme to investigate this. The ‘Go and See’ phase that we are about to embark on will hopefully unearth some current practices and success (or unsuccessful) stories that we can learn from and adapt to our organisation(s).

We do not know what the outcomes of even this first phase will look like, but what we do know if that we’ll be more knowledgeable, and we look forward to sharing that knowledge both within the consortium and beyond, seeking out what could work in our city… This is exciting, but it’s also serious, it’s about survival after all.