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Eleanor
Eleanor
Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I am sorry to hear about the barriers you have had to overcome to get a start in your career in the creative and cultural sector, including moving away from your home city of Birmingham. Your story is a poignant reminder of what I believe and what the Arts Council believes: that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not. Our strategy Let’s Create demonstrates our ambition to change this. We want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given a chance to flourish. And we want to see a country where everyone has the chance to access high-quality cultural experiences.We are making sure this happens in a number of different ways and that includes rebalancing our investment. The last two rounds of our investment have seen more money go to fund organisations based outside of London. That is something that we have pledged to continue when the new 2023-26 investment round is announced later this year. It is part of a process which has seen the tax-payers money we invest in creativity and culture move from a time when 40% was invested outside of the capital, to today when 60% is spent outside of London. Our National Lottery investment has risen from a historic baseline of 60% spent outside London to 75% now invested outside the capital. Later this year we will announce our 2023-26 Investment Programme. That will see all the additional Government funding we receive – a total of £43.5m – be invested outside of London. Our Priority Places and the Government’s Levelling Up for Culture Places show our commitment to this too. They are places where investment in culture and engagement with culture has been in the past low. Another way we are making sure that there is greater opportunity to experience and take part in high quality creativity and culture is through our Creative People and Places programme. Making access to the creativity and culture fairer is a big part of what we do at the Arts Council. Making sure that happens through the projects and changes to investment I have outlined is part of that work. But hearing about real lived experience like yours Eleanor is also a vital part of that work too.Yours sincerely
Darren Henley
Darren Henley
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Kevin
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