City Arts has been awarded Arts Council England National Portfolio Funding for the next 3 years. The funding totals £315,933 over the 3 year period ending March 2026. City Arts will use the funding to share great art with, and inspire creative self-expression by, Nottingham communities and people.
National Portfolio Organisations are leaders in their areas of the arts. Arts Council England are boosting spending in arts, museums and libraries in villages, towns and cities where investment is currently too low. The public want to be creative, and have the very best art and culture available to them in their neighbourhoods. This portfolio will deliver for them, it is Arts Council’s most varied and ambitious yet.
Suzannah Bedford, City Arts’ Director, said:
We are very grateful for Arts Council England’s continued support of City Arts. Receiving National Portfolio funding is a vote of confidence in our work, which breaks down barriers to reconnect people with art, culture and creativity. The funding will allow us to support artists from backgrounds that are under-represented in the arts, and to bring artistic excellence into communities that are under-served by the arts establishment.
Michaela Butter, Chair of City Arts’ Board of Trustees, said:
City Arts has been working in Nottingham since 1977, and we are delighted that Arts Council England have chosen to support this vital work. We can continue to create opportunities for people in Nottingham to be creative, which has been show to boost wellbeing, and to change art and culture in their city.
Peter Knott, Area Director for Arts Council England said:
We want creative communities in every corner of the country to have the opportunity to thrive, which is why we’re pleased to be supporting City Arts to build on its work with local communities in Nottinghamshire, bringing people together through the arts. It’ll be great to see them reach new audiences and continue to engage people with art and culture, no matter what their background, over the next three years.
Arts Council England Chair, Sir Nicholas Serota, said:
As well as continuing our commitment to our many established and renowned cultural organisations, I am deeply proud of the support we will be giving to those new organisations which will help ignite creativity across the country. We are facing economic pressures at present but this funding is about an investment in our future. This portfolio will support the next generation of visionary inventors, makers, performers and artists. In particular, the growth of our funding for organisations that support and develop work for children represents a profoundly important long-term investment in our country’s talent.
Arts Council England Chief Executive, Darren Henley, said:
Together, each of the 990 organisations that have been offered funding today will contribute to a portfolio that is rich, varied and truly national. This is our widest ever spread of investment across the country, ensuring that many more people will have access to a wider choice of exceptional art, culture and creative opportunities on their doorsteps. We are in tough times but we must remember creativity brings with it extraordinary dividends, boosting our country’s economic growth, creating jobs, bringing communities closer together, and making us happier as individuals. Everyone deserves to enjoy the benefits it brings, and with this investment, we believe we’ve taken a decisive step towards making that vision a reality.
Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said:
Thanks to this new government funding package, spreading more money to more communities than ever before, people living in areas from Wolverhampton to Wigan and Crawley to Chesterfield will now get to benefit from the deep economic and social rewards culture can bring.
We continue to support our icons such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Shakespeare Company, but today’s announcement will see organisations in places all too often overlooked get the support they need to transform access to the arts for everyone – no matter where they live.