Mission Models Money launches fourth phase

MMM:Designing for Transition (Deft), MMM’s fourth phase of work is launched today with £1million of it £3million target budget secured.

The objective of this fourth phase is to test ideas for responding and adapting to the numerous and complex trends affecting arts and cultural organisations, demonstrate what works and help accelerate infrastructural and organisational transformation in order to better support the creation and experience of great art.

MMM’s third phase, completed in 2007, concluded that in common with other parts of the world where not-for-profit organisations are a primary delivery vehicle for cultural experience, this sector in the UK is facing major structural changes brought on by new technologies, decreased funding sources, changing demographics and shifting audiences. If organisations do not adapt to evolving technologies, the different ways the public are engaging and participating with arts and culture, the competition for leisure time and the impact of reduced exposure to arts in the education system they risk finding themselves marginalised.

Seven programme strands have been designed in response to the recommendations made in MMM’s 2007 report ‘Towards a Healthy Ecology of Arts and Culture’. Each is aimed at helping organisations and their funders move toward new or improved operating structures and practices that can serve artists more effectively, elevate artistic achievement, and bolster financial and organisational capacity.

With funding and other support secured from The Scottish Arts Council, The Northern Rock Foundation, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Newcastle and Gateshead City Councils and Arts Council England’s North East office, a series of collaborative working pilots are already underway exploring new ways of working that can free up capacity, enable cost savings and improve the delivery and experience of great art. Participating organisations so far include Scotland’s five National Performing Companies, The members of the Scottish Literature Forum and Edinburgh’s twelve Festivals.

In the North East of England work has begun on the design and delivery of a groundbreaking long-term capitalisation strategy for the Gateshead Newcastle Arts Forum which will follow through on MMM’s previous proposals to pilot the use of new and alternative financial instruments and develop a more synchronised, intelligent funding community which prioritises the health of the whole arts ecology and maximises the
value and contribution of all the funding groups.

David Hall, Chief Executive of the Foyle Foundation and a Director of Deft said: “Public and private funders have unintentionally helped develop the under-capitalisation of the sector through working practices that drive mission creep and perpetuate the organisational fragility of those they fund. MMM’s work to date has brilliantly outlined the situation the arts and cultural sector is facing and the challenges which funders need
to address if arts organisations are to become more flexible, adaptive and financially stronger enabling them to concentrate on their core artistic purpose.”

A further strand, designed to harness the collective power and influence of Lead Agencies and Unions and their members in accelerating the agenda for the sector’s evolution is also underway. Collaborating with ITC, ABO, Dance UK, VAGA, the Museums Association, TMA, NCA, Equity, BECTU and others, the objective of the ERA21 initiative, also launched today, is to gather evidence from the groups’ extensive membership on
factors affecting the sector’s long term resilience and sustainability and present a new paradigm for infrastructural support and funding which will better support creative practice in all its diversity for the next ten years.

Three other strands of work focusing on building strategic skills in new technology use, designing new practical self-help tools which will help grow more high impact organisations and developing the 21st century competencies the sector needs to flourish are also ready for delivery.

Details of the programme and those involved can be found on the MMM website www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk, which is celebrating today’s launch with the publication of ‘New Flow’ by leading Foundation Director Tim Joss who calls for a radical re-casting of state support for the arts. More fresh thinking on the challenges that lie ahead by Rohan Gunatillake, leader of NESTA’s web connect strand and a Director of MMM and Roanne Dods, Director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Co-Director of MMM can be read in the ‘Papers’ section of the website.

Clare Cooper and Roanne Dods, Co-Founders and Co-Director’s of the MMM Programme said: “We believe strongly that the arts offer a vital source of meaning in our increasingly uncertain world. Building the resilience and sustainability of individuals and organisations working in the arts in order to better support that crucial role is therefore an urgent task. Today’s innovators in our sector, many of whom are already involved in MMM, are showing us how to create a different future by finding new ways to engage with the larger systems of which they are part and fostering collaboration across every imaginable boundary. Accelerating the ability of all of us to evolve has never been so essential and harnessing the restorative and regenerative power of arts and culture in designing the transition to a more sustainable world is an imperative. Deft is our contribution to that journey.”

Notes to editors
The scoping and design phase of Deft has been supported by: The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Northern Rock Foundation, NESTA, Arts Council England, The Scottish Arts Council, Capacity Builders, The Cultural Leadership Programme and Rhonnda Borough Council.
The delivery stage is being supported by The Scottish Arts Council in Scotland, The Northern Rock Foundation and Arts Council England’s North East Office. The project is being hosted by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation.