What Arts Council England’s New Strategic Framework Could Mean for Black Creatives

Arts Council England is entering a period of change. Following an independent review led by Baroness Margaret Hodge, the organisation has replaced its previous ten-year strategy, Let’s Create, with a new Strategic Framework for 2026.

For artists, cultural organisations, creative freelancers and community-led platforms, this matters. Arts Council England is one of the most significant public funders of creativity and culture in England. Its language, priorities and funding systems shape who gets supported, how projects are assessed and what kind of creative work is considered valuable.

For Black creatives, the question is not only whether the new framework sounds promising. The real question is whether it will make the funding system easier to access, more transparent and more responsive to the realities of creative practice.

Why the review matters

The Hodge Review did not call for Arts Council England to be abolished. In fact, one of its headline recommendations was that the government should retain the Arts Council. That is important because an independent national arts funder remains essential in a sector where many artists, organisations and communities cannot rely on commercial income alone.

But the review was also clear that reform was needed. It recommended strengthening the arm’s-length principle, reducing political interference, addressing underfunding and replacing Let’s Create with a less prescriptive strategy that allows organisations and individuals to apply according to their own strengths.

That point matters deeply for Black creatives.

Many Black-led cultural projects do not fit neatly into traditional categories. A project might combine music, education, community care, fashion, film, oral history, performance and entrepreneurship. A creative practitioner might be an artist, producer, facilitator, mentor and organiser at the same time. A community platform might produce cultural work while also supporting talent development, wellbeing, employability and social connection.

When funding systems become too rigid, this kind of work can be misunderstood. It may be seen as too community-focused for the arts, too creative for social impact funding, or too grassroots for institutional support. A simpler, less prescriptive strategy could create more space for work that sits between disciplines and responds directly to community need.

From Let’s Create to a new framework

Let’s Create was launched with an ambitious vision: that by 2030, creativity would be valued and everyone would have access to high-quality cultural experiences. Many people in the sector supported those principles, especially the emphasis on creativity being for everyone.

But in practice, some artists and organisations felt that the strategy became too complex, too restrictive or too closely tied to funding requirements. The concern was not necessarily with the values behind Let’s Create, but with how those values were implemented.

Arts Council England’s new Strategic Framework for 2026 is described as a practical interim guide while a longer-term strategy is developed. It is centred on three objectives: excellence, for everybody, everywhere.

Those three words are simple, but they raise important questions.

Who defines excellence?Who is included in “everybody”?Which places are prioritised when we say “everywhere”?And how do we make sure Black creatives are not only included as audiences or beneficiaries, but recognised as leaders, innovators and cultural decision-makers?

Excellence must include cultural specificity

The word “excellence” can be powerful, but it can also be contested. In the arts, excellence has too often been measured through narrow ideas of prestige, tradition, institutional recognition or proximity to established gatekeepers.

For Black creatives, excellence may look different. It may appear in a community archive, a spoken word night, a digital storytelling project, a youth-led music programme, a fashion collection rooted in heritage, a photography series documenting everyday Black life, or a cultural event that creates belonging for people who rarely feel centred in mainstream arts spaces.

That work should not have to dilute itself to be recognised as excellent.

A stronger funding system should understand that excellence can be formal, experimental, grassroots, intergenerational, digital, community-led, commercially aware and culturally specific. It should be able to recognise quality in work that speaks to Black audiences with nuance, not only work that translates neatly for institutions.

The challenge for Arts Council England will be making sure that “excellence” does not become a return to old hierarchies. It should be an opportunity to expand the definition of quality, not narrow it.

“For everybody” must mean more than access

Access is important. Everyone should be able to experience art and culture, regardless of background, income or postcode. But for Black creatives, access cannot only mean being invited to attend. It must also mean being funded to create, trusted to lead and supported to build sustainable careers.

Too often, inclusion in the cultural sector is framed around audiences. Institutions ask how to bring diverse communities into their buildings, festivals or programmes. That is one part of the work, but it is not enough.

A more meaningful approach asks different questions. Who is being commissioned? Who is on the board? Who is selecting artists? Who is receiving core funding? Who gets development support before they are “application ready”? Who has the relationships, language and confidence to navigate the funding system?

If the new framework is genuinely for everybody, it must address the barriers that stop Black creatives from accessing public funding in the first place. These include limited time, unpaid labour, complex forms, lack of grant-writing support, lower institutional confidence, weaker networks and the pressure to constantly prove the value of work that communities already know is valuable.

“Everywhere” must include overlooked creative ecosystems

The commitment to “everywhere” is particularly relevant outside London. Black creativity exists across England, from Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool to Leeds, Nottingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle and smaller towns where cultural infrastructure may be less visible but no less important.

Regional Black creatives often face a double challenge. They may be outside London’s concentration of media, funding and industry networks, while also being underrepresented within their local cultural ecosystems. This can make it harder to access commissioners, venues, press, mentors and long-term investment.

If Arts Council England wants to support culture everywhere, it must understand the specific needs of Black creatives in different regions. What works in London may not work in Greater Manchester. What works in a large institution may not work for a freelancer collective, youth-led platform or community-rooted cultural producer.

“Everywhere” should not only mean spreading funding geographically. It should mean recognising local knowledge, supporting regional leadership and investing in the people who are already building creative ecosystems on the ground.

Less bureaucracy could make a real difference

One of the clearest messages from the Hodge Review was that the sector needs a simpler, more practical funding system. This could be especially significant for freelancers, small organisations and Black-led platforms.

Complex application processes can exclude people long before decisions are made. A creative may have a strong idea but lack the language to describe it in funder-friendly terms. A small organisation may be doing impactful work but not have the administrative capacity of a larger institution. A freelancer may not have paid time to spend weeks writing an application with no guarantee of success.

Reducing bureaucracy is not a minor technical issue. It is an access issue.

If Arts Council England makes its processes clearer, faster and more proportionate, it could help more independent creatives apply with confidence. This would particularly benefit those who are already under-resourced, including Black creatives, working-class creatives, disabled creatives and those operating outside established institutions.

What Black creatives should do now

This moment of change should not be watched from the sidelines. Black creatives and Black-led organisations should engage with the new framework, respond to consultations, attend briefings, ask questions and make their experiences visible.

We should also prepare ourselves practically. That means documenting our impact, collecting audience data, saving testimonials, building partnerships, clarifying our artistic vision and learning how to describe our work in ways that funders can understand without losing the truth of what we do.

Funding systems need to change, but creatives also deserve the tools to navigate them.

For Black Creative Trailblazers, this is where empowerment sits. It is not enough to tell creatives that opportunities exist. We also need to help each other understand how decisions are made, what language funders use and how to advocate for our work with confidence.

The opportunity ahead

Arts Council England’s new Strategic Framework is not the final answer. It is an interim framework, and the real test will be how it shapes funding decisions, relationships and access over time.

For Black creatives, the opportunity is to push for a system that recognises excellence in all its forms, funds work beyond traditional gatekeepers and understands that culture is built not only in major institutions, but in communities, collectives, studios, homes, libraries, youth spaces, digital platforms and grassroots events.

The review has opened a conversation about trust, simplicity and the future of public arts funding. Now the sector needs to make sure that Black creatives are part of that conversation from the beginning.

Because if public funding is truly for everybody, everywhere, then Black creatives must not be treated as an afterthought. We must be recognised as central to the future of England’s creative and cultural life.