UK politics

No additional funds: UK's £1.57bn emergency arts bailout must last organisations until March 2022

Arts Council England launches second round of loans worth £100m with £300m grant applications to follow

Podcastspodcast

Brexit: how will it change the art market?

Plus, Neville Wakefield on John McCracken's planks

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack and Aimee Dawson

Spending Review: UK museums to receive £320m during ‘biggest economic decline in 300 years’

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces slight boost to culture department's budget, but some institutions face extended closure under new tiered system

UK's £120m post-Brexit festival selects teams—including art organisations—for next step of controversial initiative

Serpentine Galleries, Tate and historian David Olusoga are on the shortlist for £3m research and development funding

'Publicise your grants online': UK culture minister wades into row over rescue funding demands

Oliver Dowden confirms recipients were "encouraged" to acknowledge fund on websites and social media

Brexitnews

Post-Brexit UK festival chief seeks country’s 'brightest talents' amid criticism over £120m cost

The project, planned for 2022, promises £3m in total to successful applications

Bailout fail? Fewer than half of museums in England apply for government’s £1.57bn rescue package

Survey by The Art Newspaper also reveals that the Serpentine and Barbican have been left in limbo while the Southbank Centre is already £20m in debt

Fundingcomment

'Be commercially minded or lose future funding': UK government's threat puts museums in peril

In a letter leaked to The Art Newspaper, the culture minister Oliver Dowden tells directors they must raise their own funds during the pandemic—but how?

UK may become 'cultural wasteland' after government's failure to provide funding quickly, says parliament report

MPs say £1.5bn government support package for the arts sector is “too little too late”

Racism on walls of UK government? British Empire murals spark controversy

Politician raises concerns over Sigismund Goetze painting in the Foreign Office depicting Africa as a naked boy

UK government appoints commissioner to get culture sector 'back up and running'

Neil Mendoza is heading up a taskforce to help revive the arts after the coronavirus pandemic

UK galleries and auction houses can reopen from 1 June, government says

Art trade associations have been lobbying to be recognised as “non-essential retail” in phase two of the lockdown exit roadmap; museums will have to wait until phase three in July

UK government 'failing' to support its freelancers, leading arts body says

Finance minister Rishi Sunak has attracted criticism for his emergency bailout plan over claims that it discriminates against gig workers

Arts Council England announces coronavirus crisis plan to compensate out-of-pocket artists and institutions

The national arts-funding body will refocus some grant programmes to help individual artists and freelancers withstand lost earnings

Brexitnews

Hundreds of art organisations outraged as UK withdraws from €1.46bn Creative Europe fund

More than 680 cultural figures and institutions sign open letter over decision they believe "threatens an impoverished future for British creativity"

Cabinet reshuffle: Oliver Dowden appointed new UK culture secretary

The Conservative MP for Hertsmere in Hertfordshire replaces Nicky Morgan

From Bristol to Bermuda: satirical artist Cold War Steve asks public to download and exhibit his work

Exhibition project You, Me & Cold War Steve: the International Exhibition of the People has already been downloaded 3,000 times with scheduled venues across the globe

'Taking us back to the dark ages': UK-Europe exchange programme Erasmus hangs in the balance

Art history academics speak out as impending Brexit deadline threatens European partnership

Nicky Morgan—who stood down in UK election to spend more time with her family—is reappointed as culture secretary

Boris Johnson gives former MP a peerage in order to keep her in the cabinet, but survival of culture department in the longer term is not assured

Artists react angrily to Tory landslide result in UK general election

Issues raised include the environmental crisis and the future of the Labour party

The UK's culture secretary conveyor belt: who will be next?

As the election looms this month and Nicky Morgan announces she is standing down, the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport prepares for its latest secretary of state

Arts commentators question Conservative Party's controversial £120m ‘festival of Brexit’

Will artists and institutions participate in “national celebration” planned for 2022?

‘Listen to children, tax big auction sales’: Bob and Roberta Smith’s constitution of the arts

As UK political parties launch their manifestos, the artist sets out his own guidelines for art world equality

Boris Johnson’s Conservative manifesto promises £250m funding for culture

Although Tory announcement calls it the “largest cultural capital programme in a century”, pledge is only quarter of Labour’s £1bn culture fund

Jeremy Corbyn promises £1bn culture fund in Labour Party election manifesto

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats commit to stopping Brexit and protecting arts funding through the National Lottery

Podcastsgallery

Gunpowder, treason and plot: how artists have captured fireworks throughout history

In a special podcast episode we talk to Simon Werrett who has written a book on pyrotechnic arts in European history