Image credit: Paul Ayre This article, written by Kevin Osborne, is also published on his LinkedIn page. Arts Council England (ACE)’s new National Portfolio investment 2023-26 will increase funding to racially diverse-led organisations from 2.4% to 8.4% (£37.67m per annum). If it materialises, this would be a meaningful step towards meeting its own commitment to allocate
Image credit: Paul Ayre This article, written by Kevin Osborne, is also published on his LinkedIn page. How will Arts Council England square the circle of delivering increased funding to regions outside London while also meeting its commitment to increase funding to Black-led* organisations? asks Kevin Osborne. This commitment was made in the wake of Covid
Image credit: Paul Ayre This article, written by Kevin Osborne, was first published in Arts Professional. Funding ‘criteria’ tell you what a funder will or won’t support, but organisational ‘constraints’ ultimately determine what gets funded, says Kevin Osborne. There are written rules when applying for arts funding: set criteria which outline the funder’s priorities, the activities
MeWe360’s CEO, Kevin Osborne, writes in an article published in Arts Professional about the need for funders to distribute resources equitably. I was optimistic about the possibility for change to the stark and urgent problem of only 2.4% of regular arts funding going to BAME* organisations when the BAME population is 14%. But as I
This article, written by Kevin Osborne, was first published in Arts Professional. 1. The challenge Setting up projects which develop BAME creative businesses – through which the founders can potentially generate significant financial reward – has been at the heart of my life’s work. To date I have supported thousands of artists and entrepreneurs,
Two weeks ago I produced an online event with MeWe360 ‘Funding BAME Creativity – Exploring The New Normal’. The aim of the event was to ‘dig deep’ into the systemic racial bias in UK arts funding. Bringing together major funders in the sector, our panelists included Francis Runacres, Executive Director, Enterprise & Innovation, Arts Council England; Dame Caroline
MeWe360‘s CEO Kevin Osborne has published this piece on his LinkedIn, continuing the fantastic debate around the acronym BAME. The article has also been published on 29th April 2021 on Arts Professional. You can read the piece below. Photo designed by Paul Ayre. BAME OVER – THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES Several people have challenged my
The distribution of Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund has attracted widespread criticism, not least from those campaigning for greater diversity. Kevin Osborne calls for urgent action. Huge energy has been expended by Arts Council England (ACE) on distributing the £1.7 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF). There is a clear need for this distribution of funds at
Kevin Osborne helped launch urban music stars such as Plan B. Now the entrepreneur plans a new investment in talent from minority backgrounds. As a musician, Kevin Osborne played in bands that supported the likes of Prince, Chaka Khan and Curtis Mayfield. As a social entrepreneur, he has helped a new generation of stars to
The full report on the experience of black, asian and minority ethnic creative entrepreneurs during covid-19 is available to download here. Foreword Before the Covid-19 pandemic, many BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) creative entrepreneurs existed in an invisible space between the public and private sectors. Both sectors had consistently undervalued what they do. In