2010 Breakthrough Fund Funding for exceptional cultural entrepreneurs
Maria Balshaw – Whitworth Art Gallery Stewart Laing – Untitled Projects Matt Peacock – Streetwise Opera Simon Pearce – The Invisible Dot Ltd Gavin Wade – Eastside Projects
The Breakthrough Fund A successful arts economy requires not only great artists, but also talented and visionary people who can enable these artists to make great things happen. Paul Hamlyn Foundation set up the Breakthrough Fund, over an initial period of three years, to support exceptional cultural entrepreneurs. This year sees the third and final funding round of the initiative as it was originally devised. PHF will now evaluate the programme and start to assess its impact, with a view to reviewing findings in 2011/12 – and sharing them as widely as possible. Cultural entrepreneurs may appear in a range of roles and with various titles – producers, artistic or executive directors, curators, chief executives – but they each possess a pressing and persuasive vision, a drive and a strong track record of making things happen. The Breakthrough Fund aims to support these individuals in their determination to make a difference to the cultural landscape in which they work. Over the three years of the Fund, PHF has identified 19 exceptional individuals at critical points in their development – whether they are an emerging talent, reaching full stride in their work or at the pinnacle of their career – to provide support that will make a significant difference to them and to the organisations in which they work. Existing funding approaches, including the PHF Arts programme’s Open Grants scheme, require applicants to have fully formed proposals that detail activities, outcomes, costings, confirmed income and delivery plans. This type of funding does not always match what is required to realise a vision, where activities and outcomes are often fundamentally shaped by processes of understanding, defining and planning – not just delivery.
Nominations process The Breakthrough Fund identified potential applicants through a process of confidential nominations, asking a range of nominators to help spot talent and share their intelligence across regions and art forms. Whilst art form and regional spread are not criteria for support, we believe that a balance has emerged over the three years of the Fund. This year, 15 nominators were chosen for their expertise and experience. They gave their personal recommendations without the nominees’ knowledge. Over 40 nominees were put forward and invited to enter the application process. Paul Hamlyn Foundation gratefully acknowledges the invaluable contribution
of the nominators for the 2010 Breakthrough Fund:
Lewis Biggs (Director, Liverpool Biennial)
Morag Deyes (Director, Dancebase)
Roanne Dods (Director, RoseOrange & Co-Director, Mission Models Money)
David Francis (Director of Arts, Dartington Trust)
Tania Harrison (Arts Producer, Festival Republic)
Rhian Hutchings (WNO Max Director, Welsh National Opera)
Darius James (Artistic Director, Independent Ballet Wales)
James Kerr (Executive Director, Verbal Arts Centre)
Donna Lynas (Director, Wysing Arts Centre)
Funders are rarely willing to commit at the stage where a vision exists but is not yet clear in terms of deliverable activities, resourcing and risk – however compelling it may be. Through the Breakthrough Fund, PHF has been able to commit earlier in the cycle of making important things happen in the arts. Trusting that grantees will identify and realise their plans and the outcomes of the Fund’s support as they progress, lies at the heart of this commitment.
Shona McCarthy (Director, British Council Northern Ireland)
The Breakthrough Fund exemplifies PHF’s willingness to take a new kind of risk, based on a judgement that the selected individual, and the structures through which they work, will prove to have what it takes to succeed.
Judith Palmer (Director, Poetry Society)
Caroline Miller (Director, Dance UK)
Gillian Moore (Head of Contemporary Culture, Southbank Centre)
Purni Morell (Head of NT Studio, National Theatre)
Erica Whyman (Artistic Director and CEO, Northern Stage)
Maria Balshaw, Director – Whitworth Art Gallery £260,000
Photo: Katia Porter
2010 Breakthrough Fund recipients
Maria Balshaw joined the Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester in May 2006. An inaugural Clore Leadership Programme Fellow in 2004/05, her professional background spans Arts Council England West Midlands, Creative Partnerships Birmingham and academic posts at the University of Birmingham and University College Northampton.
He says: “When the Breakthrough Fund was first launched, it sent ripples of excitement through the arts sector – nothing quite like it existed and the vision of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to support arts entrepreneurs at critical moments is something many of us can only dream about. This is a perfect time for Streetwise Opera to take advantage of the Fund – we have been developing a new production model involving live performance and film which is producing exciting social and artistic benefits. To have more time to experiment, incubate and dream is truly incredible and will catapult our practice to the next level.”
The Breakthrough Fund grant will, over three years, enable her to conduct research and development as well as provide seed-corn funding for new programming strands that will emerge from the R&D carried out. This will include a part-time sabbatical for Maria over a six-month period, research trips, a new curator-collaborator post for 30 months and a programming fund to explore ways of working differently with the collections, artists and audiences. All of this will take place alongside the major capital redevelopment she is leading at the Gallery, infusing new thinking into a ‘new’ Whitworth Gallery.
Simon Pearce, Founder & Director – The Invisible Dot Ltd £220,000 Simon Pearce has harnessed a huge number of artists to create a whole movement of new talent in Comedy by bringing to the genre a unique combination of theatre and art practices. Having previously published performance poetry, he went on to produce highly successful shows – including some of the most talked-about events at last year’s Edinburgh Festival where his productions won the main Comedy Award and two Fringe Firsts. In February 2009, he had set up The Invisible Dot Ltd to support his ambitions across genres.
£273,000 Stewart Laing formed Untitled Projects in 1998, in parallel to his busy international designing and directing career, to produce more personal, visually driven performances that attempt to reconfigure the perceived conventions of theatrical space. Untitled Projects has since produced four ambitious and distinctive pieces of theatre in Scotland over the past ten years.
Photo: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
She says: “Finding time to develop big ideas and retain the creative side of my director’s role at the Whitworth is my perennial challenge. The Breakthrough funding will buy me thinking time at a critical time for me and for the organisation. As we steer through a major capital expansion of the Gallery, I will be able to research and develop some completely new ways of working with our wonderful collection, with artists, our audiences and our new and old spaces. It is so unusual to have the trust of a funder at the beginning of the creation process, so I feel extraordinarily honoured to receive this grant.”
Stewart Laing, Founder & Director – Untitled Projects
Matt Peacock founded Streetwise Opera over eight years ago and is included in Gordon Brown’s book ‘Everyday Heroes’. He was one of the inaugural Clore Leadership Programme Fellows in 2004/05 and, under his leadership, the company has been recognised through a series of highly prestigious awards. Streetwise Opera runs a weekly music programme in 11 homeless centres in the North East, Midlands and South of England, commissions and produces award-winning biennial opera productions, and has developed an international touring programme. This Breakthrough Fund grant comes at a critical point when the success and growth of the company have put pressure on the existing operational model and on Matt Peacock himself.
He says: “This bold scheme fosters flexible circumstances that nurture singular work; unusual work that could not have existed otherwise. And for this it must be applauded. I'm extremely proud to be among this year's recipients and I relish starting some unorthodox new projects and developing the ideas that really excite me.”
£360,000 Gavin Wade set up Eastside Projects in 2008 as an artist-run public gallery space in Birmingham, after 12 years of distinctive and challenging artistcurator practice in unusual spaces. His aim was to establish a new model of artist-run space that supports high-quality artists’ practice, impacts significantly on the cultural life of the city, and contributes to both national and international critical cultural ideas and agendas. From the outset, the organisation has relied on the interest and good will of artists and on a committed team of volunteers.
Photo: Geoff Wilson
He says: “As a mature team, we are thrilled the Breakthrough Fund has recognised the potential for us to radically change the way we produce our work in Scotland. Over the past 12 years, we have been operating on a sporadic schedule, but we have now outgrown that production model. This unique award will give us the opportunity to evolve into a more dynamic and effective organisation.”
£83,000
This Breakthrough Fund grant, over three years, will enable the appointment of a general manager for The Invisible Dot, underpin Simon Pearce’s own wages as well as some office start-up costs, and also support some research and project development activity.
Gavin Wade, Founder & Director – Eastside Projects
The Breakthrough Fund grant will enable Stewart Laing to expand the core team of the company and secure his long-term collaborations with both Lorna Duguid and Steve Slater. Over a period of three years or so, the funding will also underpin other core costs as well as research and development work.
Matt Peacock, Founder & CEO – Streetwise Opera
Over the next three to four years, the plan is for him to carve out time and space to think, experiment, incubate ideas and make mistakes – through a series of residencies with key individuals from the UK and abroad, spanning a variety of fields, art forms and backgrounds – to develop a new artistic strategy for the company.
Over three years, the Breakthrough Fund grant will underpin the organisational and management structures of Eastside Projects, enabling the recruitment of an assistant director and supporting other key salaries, such as the gallery coordinator and assistants – with a view to developing a sustainable business and fundraising plan by the end of the first year. In addition to this core support, a significant budget will be allocated to programming to help sustain and consolidate the organisation’s growing reputation. He says: “Eastside Projects is the most ambitious project of my career and it means so much to have the support of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and this unique grant. Birmingham is an amazing place to be living and working at the moment. The art scene is growing rapidly and Eastside Projects is an integral part of it. We have had great support from our partners and I am proud that we have been able to achieve so much with so little, but I am also eager for the future where we can achieve so much more with the Breakthrough Fund. Now we can achieve the vision of Eastside Projects as an artist-run public gallery that enhances the texture and vitality of the City and provides a depth of support for artists. I am ecstatic that the Foundation shares my commitment and passion for Birmingham, and that they would back our development of complex new models of practice and spaces to nurture art.”
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Paul Hamlyn (1926–2001) was an entrepreneur, publisher and philanthropist committed to providing new opportunities and experiences for people regardless of their background. His overriding concern was to open up the arts and education to everyone, but particularly to young people. In 1987, he established the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for general charitable purposes. The Foundation works across three UK programmes: Social Justice, Education and Learning and the Arts. Within each programme, funding is delivered through a combination of Open Grants, to which organisations can apply with proposals for funding innovative activities, and Special Initiatives, which are more focused interventions that aim to have an impact in a particular area. The Foundation also operates a programme of support for NGOs in India. The mission of the Foundation is to maximise opportunities for individuals and communities to realise their potential and to experience and enjoy a better quality of life, now and in the future. In particular, the Foundation is concerned with children and young people and with disadvantaged people.
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Arts programme The Arts programme supports the development and dissemination of new ideas to increase people’s experience, enjoyment and involvement in the arts, with a particular focus on young people. The Open Grants scheme supports organisations and groups, concentrating on work that is transformational at three levels: for the participants, for the funded organisations themselves and, more generally, for the sector in which they operate. Grants are also awarded to talented individuals through four Arts programme Special Initiatives: Artists Working in Participatory Settings, Awards for Artists, Jane Attenborough Dance in Education (JADE) Fellowships and the Breakthrough Fund. For information about the Arts Programme or any other aspect of Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s work, please visit www.phf.org.uk Paul Hamlyn Foundation 18 Queen Anne’s Gate London SW1H 9AA Tel: 020 7227 3500 Fax: 020 7227 0601 Email: information@phf.org.uk Website: www.phf.org.uk
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