Dear colleague,

Applications to our National portfolio funding programme closed at 10am on Monday. Approximately 1,340 arts organisations have submitted a request to be part of the new portfolio, demonstrating how they think they can help fulfil the five goals set out in our ten-year strategic framework, Achieving great art for everyone. 
 
This is a fantastic response from organisations that shows how creativity and artistic ambition is thriving across the country. It demonstrates the value placed on public funding to support this ambition – by providing stability, stimulating innovation and attracting investment.
 
We have put in place a fair and thorough process for assessing these applications and for making what we know will be very difficult decisions. From now until the end of March we will be using all our expertise to make sound, effective judgments to create a portfolio capable of achieving our 10-year vision and that will get the best art to the most people.
 
All applications will now be assessed against the published criteria with funding decisions communicated to applicants on 29 March and announced publicly on 30 March 2011. The new system will be in place from April 2012. A full timeline to announcing decision is available here.

The decision-making will be in two distinct stages:

The first stage is an assessment of the application itself, looking at the organisation and its ability to deliver the programme of work that it proposes
The second stage is about getting the best mix of arts organisations across the country 

Following our settlement from Government the Arts Council is operating with a substantially reduced budget for 2012/15. Despite an overall cut to grant in aid of 29.6% we are determined to fund organisations at a level at which they can continue to produce the excellent and innovative art that audiences want and deserve. However, funding for this programme is very limited and there will be a significant number of good applications that we will be unable to fund.
 
We know that demand for National Portfolio funding will outstrip supply, but we are confident that at the end of this process we will have a portfolio of excellent organisations with either an outstanding track record of achievement or outstanding potential.
 
Over the last year, despite the challenges we have all faced, you have continued to produce innovative and excellent work. It is this resourcefulness and creativity that is the hallmark of how the arts work in England, and it is why I am confident that artistic excellence will continue to thrive over the coming years.

All the best,
 
Alan