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I'm going to try and get down
those points that I think may be worth considering if you are
thinking about an application. Incidentally, we submitted the
Advance Notice form in April 1996 and our completed application
in September 1996.
The Advance Notice form is very simple - basically an outline
of your proposal. You have to submit your final application no
later than a year from the submission of the Advance Notice form.
When your final application is received by the Arts Council you
are allocated a Lottery Officer whose job it is to assess your
Project. I must say that our officer has been very straight with
us and encouraging without giving away her thoughts about the
merits, or otherwise, of our application. I really would encourage
you, though, to respond to any queries or requests without delay.
We were advised to follow this course by West Midlands Arts and
I am sure that this attitude increased our credibility.
When we embarked on this quest,
about two years ago, we had a fairly modest outlook. Having received
the literature from the Arts Council we soon became aware of
the need to raise 10% of the total amount that we were seeking.
Round about this time, by a lucky coincidence, the West Midlands
Brass Band Association had organised a Seminar for Bands with
the Lottery Officer from West Midlands Arts. I went along to
this and my spirits soared! Philip Thompson was most illuminating
and very keen to encourage Bands to apply. One of the most important
issues touched on was the question of "Partnership Funding",
or in other words the 10% we have to find. It became quite clear
to me that the Arts Council have a very flexible approach to
what can be counted as "partnership funding" so my
advice is, think big, you may be surprised by what can be included.
In our case we found that a grant we had received for our youth
band from the Foundation for the Sports and Arts would be acceptable
and this then had a bearing on the way we presented our "Project"
to the Arts Council. However, I would add a word of caution here
because I have heard that the Foundation is now not keen that
its grants should be used as minority funding in Lottery applications
so it may be advisable to tread carefully if you are thinking
of raising your partnership funding from this source. What I
can say with confidence is that the Arts Council don't have any
problem with this and won't divulge the source of the partnership
funding.
The upshot of this was that we
couched our application in terms of a two phase project, phase
one being to begin the process of re-equipping the youth band
with proceeds from the Foundation, phase two being to completely
re-equip the senior band and to complete the re-equipment of
the youth band with some of the better instruments that would
no longer be required. Any other instruments that would not be
needed by either of our two bands will be passed on to local
schools.
It is clearly necessary that
applications comply with the criteria that the Arts Council has
laid down. We paid particular attention to the one that is concerned
with promoting the activities of local artists. In the case of
applications for instruments, the obvious thing is to commission
a new piece of music from, if possible, a local composer. When
thinking about the overall shape of the application it is worth
remembering that you can use your partnership funding to pay
for the commission, but not the Lottery money. In our case we
paid for the commission ourselves as we had spent all our partnership
money on instruments.
Another one that is important
is that bands must take note of people with disability. This
means that you should demonstrate that you have a policy of performing
in accessible buildings and that you also rehearse in an accessible
room. We had to answer several queries about our rehearsal room
which is entered by climbing an iron staircase! We had to convince
the Arts Council that we could have access to suitable premises.
We also had queries about the
overall state of our finances and we were required to not only
supply our audited accounts, but also send in a financial projection
for the next year. I guess this was to demonstrate that we were
a good risk as far as the Arts Council was concerned. This also
ties in with a condition of our grant, namely that we amend our
constitution to ensure that in the event of the band breaking
up, any assets purchased with Arts Council finance would be passed
on to a similar body. I don't know how they would view an application
from a band that doesn't have a constitution, but I suspect that
you would be required to produce one if you haven't got one.
We are very willing to share ours if you want to have a look
at one.
I guess one message is to not
be surprised if you are asked for more information than the form
itself requires. For example, we were asked to provide a list
of planned engagements for the next year. West Midlands Arts
had warned us that bands that had less than 20 "jobs"
planned might not receive favourable treatment, so we were prepared
for this request. We were not prepared for a request to provide
examples of "publicity" and were not sure what was
wanted! A phone call clarified that they wanted to see programmes
and press cuttings and so on. It was just as well that the band
has several "magpies" because we haven't, until now,
systematically kept such examples.
Here are a few more general observations.
To start with, the Arts Council do consult widely, so you need
to lobby your County and District Council Arts Officers. Send
them a draft of you application and ask them to support you if
they are asked for an opinion. We also stressed how much young
people would benefit from our application, so it is worth cultivating
your local peripatetic music service. County Councils, in particular,
may be a bit sensitive about bands appearing to be in competition
for young players, especially if they can entice children to
join youth bands with the lure of free instruments! I know this
could be a delicate area, but it may be worth considering when
you are thinking about the overall shape of your application.
We found West Midlands Arts to
be very helpful, though I gather from another local band that
their experience wasn't so positive. The official line is that
the local Arts board can help you up to the point at which you
submit the finalised application. I rather think that if you
are polite and positive, you will get a similar response back.
A word about quotes. We did get
quotes from our local suppliers, but non could come anywhere
near Normans for price or service. The Arts Council will ask
you which quote you favour, so you need to be ready with good
arguments if for any reason the one you want to go for isn't
the cheapest. Our £46,232 will buy from Normans a complete
set of instruments, soft gig bags, a new drum kit, 2 pedal timps,
a glock and a xylophone, 20 music stands and a new set of mutes!
This quote was significantly less than the other three! Also,
Normans have been collecting instruments for us since January.
They were very confident that we would get the money! Our application
was granted on 15th. May and the first instruments arrived 3
weeks later, when we had the offer letter. We have since discovered
that the Arts Council won't release the cheque until they receive
an invoice dated AFTER the letter of offer, in our case the 6th.June.
Our final delivery is on 26th.June which means then that we will
have received everything within 6 weeks or so of the official
press release.
Finally, there are undoubtedly
some freelance operators who are willing to "help"
you to apply for lottery money. I was approached by two! In my
opinion we ought to be able to help each other to benefit from
this resource without the need to dip into our own finances,
so this is why I am sharing some of my thoughts and experiences.
Don't be put off by the formality and the language that is used
in the official literature. The Lottery has been an absolute
boon for bands. My band is proud of its independence, and as
we said in our press release, our grant will enable us to remain
free from the pressures and problems that can beset bands that
are dependent on sponsorship. I get the distinct impression that
brass bands are popular with the Arts Council, especially those
that have strong ties with their local communities. I suspect
that under the influence of the Labour Government bands with
this tradition will be well placed to benefit as organisations
that represent the tradition of amateur music making of high
quality by ordinary people; very much organisations that ought
to benefit from the "people's lottery".
Good luck with your application.
If you would like a chat I'm usually home on Wednesday evenings
after 6.00 pm.
Roland Deakin
Note by webmaster: if you want
to contact Roland please email Mike
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