Bid to boost the arts with private and HNW support

Friday 04 March 2022

The Government has unveiled a new strategy to boost the arts in Jersey – and it’s hoping the private sector and high-net-worth residents will play a key part in that.

Unveiled by Assistant Minister for the Arts in Jersey, Deputy Kirsten Morel, the strategy contains various key recommendations.

Among them are setting up a ‘Creative Island Partnership’ to bring creative bodies together and holding an annual ‘Jersey Creative Forum’, and setting up a dedicated ‘Arts Unit’ of up to three people in Government with responsibility for overseeing a new arts investment programme.

The strategy proposes a new “flexible and rolling” ‘Grants for the Arts Fund’ of £400,000 per year with the goal of giving out 15 to 20 development grants per year of £5,000 to £50,000.

The grants would be overseen by the new Arts Unit, with priority given to cross-boundary or interdisciplinary activities e.g. art and science or art and health.

For the fund, the strategy recommends studying the feasibility for an arts endowment “where Government and private investment come together as a renewable arts investment fund which can be used to support and sustain key activities recommended in this Strategy.”

It continues: “Jersey is well-placed to pioneer such a model. An exemplar is the small town of Kristiansand, Norway (pop. 80,000). In 2002, Kristiansand sold off some of its energy stocks to start an arts foundation, Cultiva , with an endowment of 1.4 billion Norwegian kroner — currently the Sterling equivalent of around £170 million.”

Boosting “private giving and sponsorship for the Arts” is an key goal of the strategy. 

Pictured: All about the arts - the four key areas, or “priority themes” that will deliver the vision of the Arts Strategy.

“This Arts Strategy provides a Framework for development and investment in the arts. By linking the arts to the sustainable wellbeing of Jersey, this should broaden its investment appeal from the Island’s many high net-worth individuals who are looking to give something back to the local community. It should also increase the attractiveness of the arts for charitable sponsors – e.g. in the finance industry,” the strategy reads.

As well as through endowment, it recommends that the “investment appeal” of the arts is made “even more explicit” through an annual arts fundraiser event, such as a gala dinner or ‘meet the investor’ dinner, which could run alongside the Creative Forum.

A Creative Entrepreneurship Booster Programme is also proposed.

This, the strategy said, could involve “working with Jersey Business and Digital Jersey to provide tailored specialist advice and guidance to artists, creative freelancers and micro enterprises.”

Pictured: A gala dinner was suggested as a way of encouraging private sector funding.

The strategy explains: “These organisations will require some professional development and be able to recruit specialist expertise - to enhance their understanding of and relevance to the arts and creative industries (augmenting existing expertise in digital and finance sectors).

“This programme will focus on establishing sustainable businesses, with information and signposting on areas such as intellectual property, accessing new markets, and collaborating with / providing services to other sectors such as tourism and finance.

“This will boost the creative content offer in Digital Jersey, connecting artists to technologists. It could also ignite a Creative Industries Business Network for Jersey – to increase the profile of the sector and facilitate collaboration and trade. It will be important to connect this booster programme to arts education and learning activities – to source talent from across the island and ensure harder-to-reach communities have access to opportunities to explore their creative entrepreneurship potential. 

“One way of increasing the visibility of and access to the Creative Industries as a viable and validated career path is through showcase and awards models such as the global Creative Business Cup. This could have a focus in Jersey on Young Creatives who are just starting out. Jersey could participate in this global programme, which operates on a network model.”

Speaking about the strategy, Deputy Kirsten Morel said: "Government has committed to devoting 1% of spending to arts, heritage and culture every year from 2022. The importance of that investment cannot be underestimated, it enables arts and culture organisations to move from a short-term strategy, to long-term sustainable partnership.

"The strategy provides a blueprint which will not only help the arts to flourish for arts sake, but also as part of the wider community. The arts could boost mental health and wellbeing, an improved tourism offering, improve public realm, create rewarding careers, and help in education."

He added said the strategy was developed with the help of "many stakeholders".

The result, he said, "is the framework within which all projects and initiatives sit and will be measured, but the implementation will be led by community needs, and the Creative Island Partnership will be the means by which we achieve that, and I would hope that islanders get involved."

The strategy was unveiled at the La Folie studio of local artist Glen Fox yesterday.

He told Express he was is excited to see the real life results of the increased investment in the Jersey arts scene.

Pictured: Fox, photographed with his latest oil painting, hopes the Art Strategy builds on the strong community already present in Jersey.

"There has always been such a strong art community on the island," said Glen, "and my hope is that we will now start to see it come more to the surface."

"Artists need the proper space and the proper support to function," he added.

Click HERE to read the Arts Strategy in full.