Framing the Future: One Year On
One year on, the visual arts have greater political visibility. Now recognition needs to become action.
In April 2025, Framing the Future: The Political Case for Strengthening the Visual Arts Ecosystem set out to change how the visual arts are understood within UK policymaking.
Commissioned by Contemporary Visual Arts Network England (CVAN England) and John Hansard Gallery, part of the University of Southampton, in collaboration with Artists Now (aka a-n The Artists Information Company), DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society) and Plus Tate, the report made the economic, social and cultural case for strengthening the visual arts ecosystem.
Fourteen months later, Framing the Future: One Year On, written by Eliza Easton, Director of Erskine Analysis, asks a simple question: what has changed?
There has been real progress
The visual arts have greater visibility within national policy than they did a year ago.
The sector is now explicitly recognised as a ‘frontier’ sub-sector within the Government’s Creative Industries Sector Plan, a significant shift from previous strategies where the visual arts were largely absent or implicit.
The visual arts are also represented on the Creative Industries Council through CVAN England National Director Paula Orrell, creating an important route for the sector to engage directly with ministers and contribute to how the Government’s ambitions for the creative industries are translated into policy and action.
Changes to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes are beginning to address another long-standing challenge: the difficulty of accurately measuring the scale and economic contribution of the visual arts.
The report also identifies growing alignment between the issues raised in Framing the Future and Dame Margaret Hodge’s review of Arts Council England — including the need for greater investment in artists, more sustainable organisational models, action on arts education and new approaches to capital and endowment funding.
Together, these developments represent meaningful progress towards positioning the visual arts as a strategic national asset.
But recognition is not enough
The fundamental challenges facing the visual arts ecosystem have not disappeared.
Business models remain fragile across both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. Artists continue to experience significant economic pressures. Arts education and the future talent pipeline remain under threat, while gaps in data mean the full economic contribution of the visual arts is still not adequately captured.
One Year On argues that greater political visibility must therefore be the beginning of the process, not its conclusion.
The task now is to turn recognition into sustained investment and structural change.
Strengthening the whole ecosystem
A central argument of Framing the Future was that the challenges facing the visual arts cannot be addressed through isolated interventions.
Artists, galleries, museums, studios, education, universities, funders, collectors, the commercial market and public institutions form an interconnected ecosystem. Each part supports and feeds another.
A healthy ecosystem creates the conditions for artists and organisations to develop, take risks and grow. When one part becomes unsustainable, the impact travels across the system.
That is why strengthening the visual arts requires a long-term approach that recognises its cultural value alongside its contribution to economic growth, skills, education, health and wellbeing, communities and place.
Where next?
There is still significant work to do.
Framing the Future: One Year On identifies urgent challenges around arts education and skills, the sustainability of artists and organisations, infrastructure and business models, and the evidence needed to demonstrate the full scale and impact of the sector.
But there is also an opportunity.
The visual arts are increasingly present in conversations about growth, industrial strategy, devolution and the future of cultural investment. The priority now is to ensure that this visibility results in meaningful action.
As One Year On concludes, recognition matters but only if it leads to meaningful action to protect and strengthen a sector that delivers substantial cultural, economic and social value.
Read the report
Framing the Future: One Year On
Written by Eliza Easton, Director of Erskine Analysis.
A follow-up to Framing the Future: The Political Case for Strengthening the Visual Arts Ecosystem.
Commissioned by CVAN England and John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, in collaboration with Artists Now (a.k.a a-n The Artists Information Company, DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society) and Plus Tate.
Supported by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Visual Arts and Artists.