UK to Impose Quantitative Measures of Arts Quality for Grants Funding

ARTS PROFESSIONAL

UNITED KINGDOM---Arts Council England is forging ahead with plans to impose a standardised system for measuring artistic quality on its NPOs, despite a lukewarm sector response and warnings that this will require a “quantum change” in organisational attitudes to data. An independent evaluation of the scheme has found arts organisations to be sceptical about the value of a standardised approach to measuring quality, and to have serious concerns about the administrative burden associated with it. Organisations across all artforms will be “required to use a specified system to complete an agreed number of evaluations each year and support each other by providing peer reviews”. This will be mandatory for NPOs receiving more than £250k a year in regular funding, while those funded below this level will be encouraged and supported to use it. [link]