Today we're launching a UK wide survey for studio holders in artist-led spaces. 

This survey marks the beginning of a longer term collaboration with East Street Arts. At this time it will focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the labour hours and associated costs to individuals that goes into running artist-led studios, a vital part of the arts ecology.

Artist-led studios are often nimble and reactive, but entirely reliant on those who make up the collective or membership cohort to function day-to-day. While there are anecdotal explanations for why many artist-led spaces find it difficult to be sustainable or even grow, at this point we want to avoid making any assumptions.

Who can fill this out?
This survey intends to collect data from artists and arts workers who identify as part of an artist-led space. Our use of the word art and artist is not discipline specific.

If you have a studio that you do not consider to be artist-led, or if you do not currently have a studio, you can still fill in some of the questions that should appear as relevant to you, as comparative data will still be very useful for us.

Definitions
The term artist-led to describe who you are and what you do means different things to different people. We are using the term artist-led studios to include those that:
- Have artists at every level of decision-making and of their governance structure. Practicing artists lead on all decision making.
- Are independent, DIY and grassroots organisations that include artists in their make-up on some level.

The survey is anonymous. At the end of the survey you will be given the option to enter a prize draw for up to £50.00 in vouchers for Village Books (a Leeds based independent bookshop) at which point you will be asked for your email address. This is on a separate link which cannot be connected to your survey answers, so the survey answers will always remain anonymous.

The survey will take approximately 6 minutes to complete. 

Access
If you have any questions or require access support to fill in the survey, please contact us or call the East Street Arts office to arrange a meeting on 0113 248 0040.

​FILL IN THE SURVEY HERE
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​​We're pleased to announce that we are partnering with East Street Arts on OPEN DOORS: The Real Cost of Artist-Led Spaces - a collaborative campaign to understand the barriers that artist-led spaces face in achieving and maintaining sustainability.

It will focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the labour hours and associated costs to individuals that ensures the running of these spaces, as a vital part of the arts ecology.

Over the next few months, more activity as part of this campaign will be announced, including information on events and ways to contribute to this conversation.

Connect with us on social media for more updates:
​@_TheUncultured_ and @EastStreetArts

​Written by Ash
[Length: 6.5 mins]

The funding landscape has been looking even more arid since the pandemic, unsurprisingly. While there have been some innovations in how support might reach individuals such as Strike a Light’s Let Artists Be Artists, on the whole the system is based in competitive, zero-sum game cap-in-hand applications. As individuals we’re an unpaid workforce in an unregulated market spending days at a time writing explanations for why we need money, knowing that each time we win there are many, many more who lost. 

They say the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at maths. In fact, it’s likely a tax on the poor, the desperate, the ones in need. 

A lottery ticket costs £2 for an entry with very, very unlikely odds of winning millions at best. Competing for funding in the current application-focused structure costs vastly more in unpaid writing time, and while the odds are better, it will likely be for a few thousand at best. Around 1 in 5 eligible applicants were awarded DYCP in round 9, while 1 in 7 entries into a 49 number lottery will get 2 numbers correct. You don’t get any money for 2 numbers, but you do get a free lucky dip, giving you another crack at it. Under current rules you are only allowed 2 goes at an ACE DYCP. Even as a seasoned DYCP writer it takes me around 2 days to write a DYCP application. It takes around 45 seconds to buy a lottery ticket if you’re already in the shop, so somewhere in that equation cost/labour wise you might not necessarily have totally better odds at the lottery, but you could certainly get a ticket and repurpose the time you would have spent writing an application doing some actual paid work. 

A bursary, derives from the Latin for bag or purse. It’s just a chunk of change to enable someone to live and get on with the stuff they need to do. We all need this, all of the time. We spend so much time scrapping around for money to make work, to show work, to see work, to go to work, to pay for someone to care for our children while we work. We all need a bag of money that alleviates all this wasted money-searching labour so we can just get on and actually work. So, I don’t know how bursaries are assessed. I’ve not sat on an awarding panel, and so I’ve never been given the information on how someone can say who should receive that bag of money and who shouldn’t. Who should feel relief, and who should feel like they didn’t ask nicely enough. Who should feel the comfort of knowing bills are paid for long enough to focus on their actual work, and who should feel like they wasted their precious time on this earth writing a begging letter to a room full of salaried people who don’t know or can’t remember how it feels to wonder if you have enough money to see you through to the end of the financial year. 

We wrote two lots of two bursaries into our Producing for the End of the World project and then realised we didn’t know how to give them out at a time when every freelancer just needs money. Money to work, money to be able not to work. So we decided to give out 4 bursaries of £600, specifically for producers, on a lottery basis. They just needed to send us a CV by way of entry, which we only checked to make sure they were actually producers in the Live Art/performance sector. If they were, they were eligible and were entered in. 

In the first round, for self-identifying early career Live Art/performance producers we had 56 applications and did a random number generator on google. This lottery selected Natalie Chan and Beccy D’Souza. We’ve done some mentoring with these folks as well which has hopefully been helpful, although the money will have probably just compensated their time doing this mentoring. 

In the second round, for self-identifying mid-career and established Live Art producers we had 21 applications and again did a random number generator on google. This time it selected Siân Baxter and Rafia Hussain. We actively invited applicants to spend the money on something that directly benefited themselves, and not to allow it to subsidise someone else’s project. They assured us they did that. The things they spent it on were basic - alleviating some precarity, knowing that bills are covered, and some time for rest can be accounted for. 

£600 is going to change nothing in the long-term, and will change very little in the short term. But that’s why it was even more important to just get it out to people, without application or judgement of “quality” or “merit”. It was just a bump, maybe a lifeline, ideally it would be a luxury.

With freelancers working on average 2 out of every 5 days unpaid, we shouldn’t have to beg and plead for an amount of money that won’t even cover our monthly childcare. We should, without explanation, be able to go on fucking holiday. We should not have to show the amount of work undertaken for it, or endlessly evaluate how “timely” and “significant” it has been for your practice. Because it’s just a few hundred quid, helping a few individuals and their families. And in the middle of a pandemic, when most producers lost everything and still reached their arms out to support the sector around them, that’s a pretty good spend of public money. 

These bursaries were generously supported by Arts Council England. Who is generously supported by National Lottery. Who is generously supported by people like my nan, Beryl Bates, who played every week, twice a week, for the 25 years before she died without ever winning more than a tenner. Thanks Beryl.

​As artists and producers, we hold a lot of information of programmers in the UK and internationally - so we have come up with a few ways to make sure we don't stop any plates from spinning.

We've created 2 versions of our Relationship Tracker to share as resources for artists and producers - read more below about each and how we imagine you might use them.

Created in Excel - also compatible in Numbers

This version of the resource is built to track one artist's relationships across 4 categories (tabs across the workbook):
-UK venues
-UK festivals
-International venues
-International festivals

There is also a WLTM tab (Would Like To Meet) where you'd add in programmers you'd like to make connections with in the future. We imagine that once you make contact, you'd move them into the relevant category tab above. 

In column F, there is a dropdown to indicate what kind of relationship you have with the programmer so far, which we imagine you'd update as the relationship evolves:
-Programmed
-Commissioned
-Bursary
-Offered in-kind
-Shown interest

Columns I-L are focused on action - what is your artwork priority when contacting them, date you contacted them, log their reply and further action.

Created in Excel - full functionality only works within Excel

As this one is a bit more complex, watch this video for a guide on how to use it.

​Hope they're helpful!

As part of our Producing for the End of the World project we’re offering £600 to two independent mid-career/established Live Art* producers. 

You might want to apply because Shit’s Hit The Fan since Covid and you need:
-Training
-Therapy 
-Office equipment/software
-Match funding for your own project
-Childcare
-Time away/holiday.
We don’t need to know what you want to do with it, but we hope you’ll use it to benefit yourself.

Who
You must be an independent producer working within Live Art*, who identifies as mid-career/established - meaning you no longer consider yourself ‘early-career’ or ‘early on in your practice’.

You can be based anywhere in the UK

As we are two white cis women, we really would like to reach producers who identify differently to this.

How to apply
Please send us either an up-to-date written, video or voicenote CV, a website link or portfolio link to apply. This is so we can double check you meet the criteria of being an independent mid-career/established producer, are based in the UK and are working in live art.

Send your CV/Link to contact@the-uncultured.com 

If you meet the criteria, your name will be put in a hat and randomly selected.
Because of this random selection process we will be unable to offer feedback. 

When
Deadline for applications is 21st June at 5pm. Late submissions will not be entered. 

We're super pleased to have been invited by Diana Damian and Joe Parslow to teach on the Festival module for second years at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama!

We'll be working with the group to think about how we can work ethically and efficiently to curate, administrate, promote and deliver a festival...in a 10 week turnaround!!

Super excited to start this work and meet the group!
​

Thursday 15th April, 10am-1pm, FREE
Prjct Grnts shrtcts 4 prdcrs
Book now 

A session specifically for producers who have or plan to write under £15k ACE Project Grant applications. We’ll share some of the shortcuts we’ve developed to getting an application done as painlessly as possible. 

We will look at templates to make the writing quicker, share our processes for information gathering and complete some writing tasks to help build your confidence and ease with hitting that word count!

Who is it for?
This will be skills focused rather than introductory, so this is aimed at people who already know the sorts of things ACE fund and are looking for practical tips on application writing. 

The session is pitched primarily at producers who are less confident in writing Project Grant applications, but if you are a more experienced producer and would like to attend please feel free to come along. If you are a self-producing artist you’re also welcome, just be aware that the session will be more focused on producers. 

Access: The session will be hosted on Zoom and will be live captioned.

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​
Wednesday 5th May, 10am-1pm, FREE
DYCP if your P ain’t very C
Book now

A session specifically for producers who might want to apply for their own DYCP funding. We’ll think about how we can talk about our own practices as C(reative) even though they might seem mostly administrative.

We will do an introduction to DYCP, talk about the type of application formats we’ve had success with and spend some time doing practical writing tasks.

Who is it for?
The session is pitched at producers who are interested in applying to DYCP for their own development. 

Access: The session will be hosted on Zoom and will be live captioned.

​As part of our Producing for the End of the World project we’re offering £600 to two Early Career producers to join us (The Uncultured) for 6 mentoring sessions. 

Watch this video to find out about the opportunity, then continue reading below.

You might want mentoring from us because:
- You have some aims and plans you want strategic support with
- You’d like to learn something specific that you think other producers (us) could help with
- You’re not 100% sure but know you would benefit from some open conversation
- Shit’s Hit The Fan and you need this.

Who
1. You must be a producer with at least one year of experience, and you should define yourself as Early Career. 

2. You can be based anywhere in the UK. Mentoring sessions will be held over zoom between March - July 2021 at times mutually agreed by us and you.

3. We are live art/performance producers and so would like to support others in this part of the sector.

4. As we are two white cis women, we really would like to reach producers who identify differently to this.

5. If you don’t know who we are, please take a look at our website the-uncultured.com and watch the intro video above to see if you think you’d actually like to spend 6 hours or more on a zoom with us! 

How to apply
Please send us either an up-to-date written, video or voicenote CV, a website link or portfolio link to apply. This is so we can double check you meet the criteria of being a producer with at least one years’ experience, are based in the UK and are working in live art/performance.

Send your CV/Link to contact@the-uncultured.com 

If you meet the criteria, your name will be put in a hat and randomly selected.
Because of this random selection process we will be unable to offer feedback. 

When
Deadline for applications is 9th March at 5pm. Late submissions will not be entered. 

​
(Length: 4 mins)
​​
We’ve eaten all the beans, flushed the last sheet of toilet roll and moved into our pillow-fort bunkers, but it still doesn’t quite seem to be the end yet. 

Making something arty “happen” right now is almost laughable, but we’re going to roll up our sleeves, pop on our masks, and take a big deep breath of our own recycled oxygen and work out how the fuck to take a next step. 

2020 was...different, and 2021 looks to be much the same. Live performance will be altered for the foreseeable future. Smaller audiences, socially-distanced ways of working, increased international tariffs, and fewer opportunities and fees available from venues. Freelancers of all forms have had to adapt quickly, without resource, knowledge or skill in order to make money or not get left behind in the shuffle. Live work producers are trying their hand at new ways of working and finding that the answer to most things seems to contain the word digital. Have-a-go culture leaves artists and producers exposed and on the back foot, and could potentially do more harm than good. 

In 2020 we had a go at a zine, a film, a novel, online talks, an exhibition and a web-based artwork. We had to make it up as we went along, it was stressful, things were missed, and we don’t want to do that any longer. So thank fuck ACE has given us some money to think about better ways of working in the coming year.

Yeh, but HOW did you actually do that?
We guessed, pulled in favours, made mistakes and spent a lot of unpaid time trying to learn a bit. We can’t, and don’t want to retrain as film, podcast and digital producers, because there are already people doing these jobs brilliantly. But to be able to continue working with artists, and supporting increasingly interdisciplinary ways of working, we need to know enough to support bringing together the right teams and importantly, the right amount of money, to create positive processes and well resourced work.

For the next few months we’re going to be speaking to organisations and freelancers who have made adaptations to their business as usual in order to keep making work happen in 2020/2021. We want to find out what they’ve changed, what ideas we can learn from, what ideas we can borrow or steal and which of their mistakes we can try to not replicate. We’re all having to react and work differently and we feel we need to combine this individual learning as much as possible so that the wider ecology of artists and arts workers can benefit from it, use it, and better it.

Our collection of case studies will go into a publication. It will be a by-no-means-exhaustive set of crib sheets for the ways that people have swerved, shifted and kept shit happening during the pandemic. We hope it will give a reader a collection of provocations for ways of working during the next inevitable political, financial or health shitstorm. 

Other things we’re going to do:
- A paid mentorship for 2 Early Career Producers working in Live Art and Performance
- A three-day workshop for Live Work Producers who have had to undo and redo most of their work over the past year
- Host bi-monthly Live Art and Performance Producer drop-in sessions
- Funding advice sessions including: ‘DYCP if your P ain’t very C’, and ‘Prjct Grnts shrtcts 4 prdcrs’.

In partnership with Live Art Development Agency and ArtHouse Jersey.

Participants: Ben Price, Beth Sitek, Daljinder Johal, Jen Smethurst, Nur Khairiyah Ramli, Roxanne Carney, plus Ashleigh Bowmott and Laura Sweeney.

This 3-day remote retreat was for 6 producers, curators and arts administrators who had had to undo their present and future work because of COVID-19. It was a guided staycation which allowed space for those who ‘support’ Live Art, to reflect on “business as usual”, get some much deserved socially-distanced nourishment, and develop some collective radical terms and conditions. Each participant was given a stipend of £140 to take part.​

Day One - Doing
The first day focused on reflecting on the groups’ practices pre-COVID, and involved contemplative walk and talks and collective screams. Through small group and whole group discussion they explored notions of Value and Sustainability.

In order to understand individual situations through a collective lens, each participant spoke of their frustrations about their practices and through active listening created a word cloud to highlight the shared themes.​

Day Two - Undoing
This was a compulsory day off. In order to facilitate this, we posted some ‘shiny ass care packages’ beforehand to each participant. This included a suggested day-off timetable; a podcast, YouTube rabbit hole, and Netflix list; cookie mix; face masks; clay; aromatherapy roll ons; and shower steamers.

Day Three - Doing Again
This final day was broken down into three sections about Boundaries, Money and Work/Life Balance. It involved a gameshow, an unexpected hour off, group conversation and the development of new Terms and Conditions for working.

At the end of the three days, each participant said goodbye to one another in the form of a promise to their practice. These included:
- Not working unpaid again, at the risk of undermining themselves and others in the workforce.
​- Valuing their practice as much as those that they work with.
- Setting clear boundaries.

We made it clear that we needed this DIY as much as the participants did. As such it was structured as a space of careful reflection, discussion and appropriate rest. We wanted to ensure it was lighthearted and warm, at a time where everyone has lost much of their work and self-care has given way to self-preservation.

We were involved in a recent survey of independent producers which shared a report available here, demonstrating the lack of opportunities specifically for those in supporting roles, and the inconsistent training and networking platforms which become barriers to progression. There are so few networks, funding streams and support networks aimed specifically at those who ‘support’ live art, directly leading to the sense of loneliness, lack of value and burnout that is cited in the word cloud produced on Day One.

​We believe this is mostly preventable, and that targeted learning and development opportunities for producers, curators and arts administrators is key to ensuring that some of this talent remains in the industry.