Co-AD Janet reflects on today’s NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) announcement from Arts Council England.

The short version of today’s news is that Talking Birds remains in ACE’s portfolio at standstill funding which is, of course, both welcome and a huge relief.

The longer version is that this has been the latest tense day in a seemingly never-ending series of tense days stretching back longer than I can even remember now. The multi-faceted polycrisis of advancing climate breakdown, the pandemic, chaotic government and the constant firefighting of just living have been taking their toll on us all.

The planning time for our NPO application was a kind of punctuation in all of this. For a time, we got to immerse ourselves in imagining the equitable green future we are trying to build, and this was magical, inspiring, hopeful and nurturing. All over Coventry, all over the country, organisations were doing the same thing and the hope was tangible*.

It is perhaps this that makes announcement day so hard. Of the better futures full of creativity, kindness and wonder, and the ecosystem of interconnected plans and dreams that shaped up out of all the conversations at the beginning of the year, there are only a finite number that will be funded. In the end, the system has to look at all this amazing, spectacular, dynamic, thoughtful work with artists, participants, communities and audiences across the land – all this interdependent creativity, beauty, challenge and humanity – through the reductive lens of competition.

And now that the announcement has been made, I am holding many emotions all at once. I am angry that the state does not value arts and culture enough to warrant larger investment nationally. I am overjoyed for the companies uplifted, and for the amazing, life-changing work that this will make possible. I am sad and angry for those whose brilliant work has not been awarded funding this time. I am glad that ACE has been bold enough to start to address some of the historic inequity of the funding system. And although it feels churlish or ungrateful to admit this, I can’t help but also grieve for the plans that, at standstill, we won’t be able to realise.

Today has been a useful reminder of the importance and joy of the mycelial interdependence that binds the arts ecosystem, and of the deeply felt and dearly held value of such support, connection and kindness in times like these.

Today I may be disappointed, but tomorrow I will remember that what we do well as artists, as humans, is to re-frame our disappointments as opportunities.

To imagine different and better ways to make our work.

And we will.

*the frustration and strength-sapping of the writing and character-counting was, of course, just as tangible.

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