National Lottery funding is one of the most important sources of investment in England’s contemporary visual arts, enabling artists and organisations to develop ambitious work, strengthen communities and create opportunities in places across the country.
In our response to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) National Lottery Good Causes Call for Evidence, CVAN England highlights the significant impact of this investment and makes the case for protecting and strengthening its role in supporting the visual arts sector.
Drawing on evidence from our nine regional networks, we demonstrate how National Lottery funding, distributed through Arts Council England, supports artistic development, creates career pathways, strengthens local cultural infrastructure and brings contemporary art into the everyday lives of communities.
From artist-led initiatives and creative spaces to national touring programmes and networks supporting disabled and neurodivergent artists, these projects show how relatively modest grants can generate lasting cultural, social and economic value.
Our central message is that National Lottery investment does more than make projects possible. It sustains the artists, organisations, relationships and cultural infrastructure that enable contemporary visual arts to thrive across England.
Demonstrating the impact of Lottery investment across England
Our submission highlights six projects that demonstrate the breadth and impact of National Lottery investment.
Art in Motion, Bristol supports learning-disabled and neurodivergent artists to develop their creative practice. Lottery investment enabled the organisation to employ three new facilitators, strengthen its governance and establish a 60-member Neurodivergent Artist Network. Partnerships with Arnolfini and Spike Island have also helped connect artists with the wider cultural sector.
DAiSY, Surrey and the South East supports a network of around 120 d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists, providing mentoring, paid commissions, exhibitions and professional development. Its work demonstrates how sustained investment can address barriers to artistic careers and build lasting peer networks.
Kent based Cement Fields‘, Sea Like a Mirror brought contemporary art to six coastal communities through a national touring programme developed with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Alongside a major commission by artist Ivan Morison, the project supported local artists, including five micro-commissions for artists aged 18–30 in Weston-super-Mare.
ArtBomb, Doncaster uses an experimental arts festival and pop-up space to bring contemporary art into everyday settings, engaging communities in conversations about mental health, homelessness and environmental issues. The initiative demonstrates how artists can revitalise town centres and create spaces for public dialogue.
Flatland Projects, Hastings provides young people with practical skills, workspace and professional connections through programmes at Beeching Road Studios and partnerships with local education networks, helping to create pathways into the creative industries.
Original Projects, YARMONICS, Great Yarmouth commissions artists to create work in unusual cultural spaces, supporting freelancers, activating local infrastructure and expanding creative opportunities within a coastal community.
Together, these examples demonstrate how National Lottery funding supports much more than individual artistic projects. It strengthens organisations, develops creative careers, builds partnerships and helps sustain the cultural life of communities.
Making funding more accessible and equitable
While recognising the considerable impact of Lottery investment, our submission identifies opportunities to improve how funding reaches artists and smaller organisations.
Complex application processes, significant unpaid development time and high competition for grants can disadvantage freelancers, small artist-led organisations and those without specialist fundraising expertise.
We have called for practical changes to make funding more accessible:
- Simpler applications: Reduce bureaucracy and make application and reporting requirements proportionate to grant size and organisational capacity.
- A two-stage process: Introduce a short Expression of Interest stage to reduce the time applicants invest in unsuccessful proposals.
- Better access support: Improve application systems and tailored assistance for disabled and neurodivergent artists.
- Clearer guidance: Provide accessible pre-application advice and greater transparency about funding priorities and decision-making.
- Stronger regional partnerships: Work with trusted local networks and organisations to reach artists and communities currently underrepresented in funding.
- More flexible funding: Recognise experimental, participatory and co-produced projects where outcomes cannot always be predicted in advance.
These improvements would help ensure that National Lottery funding reaches a broader range of artists, organisations and communities.
Investing in artists and cultural infrastructure
A key recommendation of our submission is that investment in artists’ development, professional networks, creative workspaces and organisational capacity should be recognised as investment in essential cultural infrastructure.
Artists and artist-led organisations frequently create the spaces, relationships and opportunities that sustain local cultural life. Yet the work required to develop partnerships, support communities and maintain these organisations is often underfunded.
National Lottery funding has a vital role in building this infrastructure by supporting long-term development and organisational resilience, alongside public-facing programmes.
We are calling for funding approaches that recognise sustained engagement and relationships rather than treating projects as isolated activities. This is particularly important in places where cultural infrastructure is limited and smaller organisations provide essential opportunities for artists and local communities.
Strengthening local decision-making and demonstrating impact
Our response also calls for greater community involvement in decisions about how National Lottery funding is distributed locally.
Stronger partnerships between funders, local authorities, regional networks and communities would help ensure that investment reflects local priorities and reaches those who need it most.
We also recommend improving how the impact of Lottery funding is communicated, using regional case studies, accessible digital content and evidence that demonstrates the cumulative benefits of investment.
The value of Lottery funding cannot be measured solely through audience numbers or immediate project outputs. Its lasting impact is also found in the skills, confidence, partnerships, professional networks and opportunities that continue long after individual grants have ended.
Supporting the conditions for contemporary visual arts to thrive
National Lottery funding plays a unique and essential role in England’s visual arts ecology, unlocking the creativity and ambition of artists and smaller organisations in communities across the country.
Our submission makes the case for sustaining this investment while strengthening how funding is accessed, distributed and evaluated.
By recognising the long-term value of artists, cultural organisations and local infrastructure, National Lottery funding can continue to make an extraordinary contribution to England’s cultural, civic, social and economic life.
CVAN England will continue to advocate for investment that enables artists, organisations and communities across every region to thrive.
