ARTS4KENT GRANT MAKING POLICY

1.Charitable purpose and objective

1.1. The purpose of Arts4Kent is to raise funds to supportUK national and local museums, galleries and art- and culture-related projects, primarily by means of offering a programme of lectures, visits and other events to the general public. As a successor to the Art Fund Kent FundraisingCommittee, Arts4Kent will also continue to support the Art Fund and its objectives and purposes.

1.2. Funds raised by Arts4Kent will be given either directly to museums and art galleries, or indirectly to similar organisations through the Art Fund. The intention of the funding is to assist museums and art galleries to make acquisitions to strengthen their collections; to support funding of special projects and occasionally to support efforts to save iconic art works from being sold overseas.

1.3. The trustees will apply the funds of Arts4Kent at their discretion and in accordance with the charitable purposes and objectives of the charity.

2.Principles applied in determining support

2.1. The trustees of Arts4Kent support the goals of the ArtFund and will seek to provide funding to the Art Fund

2.2. Other organisations receiving grant funding fromArts4Kent will usually be UK public museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries, or archives.

2.3. In addition, Arts4Kent may occasionally make grants to local ‘arts in the community’ projects.

2.4. In awarding grants to organisations other than the ArtFund, the trustees of Arts4Kent will apply the following principles.

2.4.1 Recipients of its funding support will be UK based but applications from Kent and the South East(including Surrey, East and West Sussex and London) will be favoured.

2.4.2. Except for grants to theArt Fund, Arts4Kent grants will only be made to eligible recipients for specific projects that align with the objectives of Arts4Kent.

2.4.3.  Eligible recipient organisations should normally be open to the public for at least half the week for at least six months of the year.

2.4.4. Eligible recipient organisations must also be a suitable organisation to care for and protect artistic and cultural artifacts and be at least provisionally accredited under the Arts Council Accreditation Scheme.

2.5. The trustees will not make grants to individuals

2.6. Arts4Kent will not commit to long term projects or contribute to general administrative expenses such as salaries, maintenance,or repair costs.

2.7. The trustees are content to work in partnership with other grant making bodies where funding of an entire project is beyond the scope of any single organisation. This includes, but is not limited to, the ArtFund.

3.Decision making

3.1. The trustees of Arts4Kent will decide, through regular committee meetings, which arts organisations will receive grants from Arts4Kent in accordance with this policy. Granting decisions will be recorded inArts4Kent meeting minutes.   Decisions on grant awards can be made at any trustee meeting but the trustees will review grant decisions taken on a yearly basis.

3.2 The decision of the trustees on whether to award a grant is final.

3.3. The trustees are not obliged to provide an explanation to applicants if their application is not successful.

 4.Administration

4.1. Given the relatively modest scale of the grants thatArts4Kent will be able to make, a simple application for a grant in writing from prospective beneficiaries is preferred. Fundraising appeals by the ArtFund may be exempted from this requirement.

4.2. Written applications should detail:

·        The purpose of the proposed grant and the way in which the grant will be managed and applied.

·      The identity of person(s) responsible for the management of the grant and for overseeing the work.

·      The sum being requested and the overall cost of the project.

4.3. Grants will be provided by means of an electronic banking transfer or a cheque. Art4Kent’s normal payment authorisation process will be applied to any payments.

4.4. Where the grant is for a specified project or purpose, and in situations where that purpose does not proceed or where any grant or part thereof remains unused, unused funds must be returned to Arts4Kent.