Surrey Cultural Partnership and the Community Foundation for Surrey co-commissioned Sixth Voice Consulting to research the current arts and culture funding landscape in Surrey and to scope the potential need for funds in the future.  

 

The resulting report identifies challenges facing the county’s cultural sector:

 

• Surrey is under-funded by national grant-makers compared with its neighbours

• Local authorities across the board are facing stringent cuts and Government policy is affecting public money in the South East

• Smaller organisations lack the skills and resource required for grant applications and, due to their size, they can be ineligible to apply

• There is a tendency amongst cultural organisations to be highly protective of their funding sources, which can limit collaboration and restrict funding opportunities
   

Informed by this research, Surrey Cultural Partnership and the Community Foundation for Surrey, working with New Philanthropy for Arts and Culture, are now exploring opportunities to develop a new Fund for Surrey to help widen participation in arts and culture in order to benefit everyone across the county.  

Surrey Cultural Partnership is grateful to Arts Council England for supporting this work through its managed funds. 

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