Artist's Resource Pack

Some people do not like working alone, and find the isolation of being a freelance worker hard to deal with. If you don’t want to be a freelance worker, but still want to be in control of what you do, or if you have an idea that needs more than just you to become real, then setting up a group, partnership or company might be the right option for you.

Working with other people can be hard – you have to be prepared to share ideas, the work and any money you might earn.

A group doesn’t need any formal structure, just a name and a reason to exist. If you want your group to be able to apply for funding though, you will need a bit more than that. Many funders need you to have a name, aims and objectives and an equal opportunities policy. Some might need you to have a named set of people involved in running your group (a management committee) or a formal document setting out your purpose and how you run (a constitution). You may also need a bank account in the group’s name.

A partnership is a business where two or more people own a company, work together and share the profits or losses on an agreed basis (mostly in equal portions). There are no legal requirements to set up a partnership, but you should think about writing a formal contract which sets out what the boundaries are. (Limited Liability Partnerships were established in 2000 as a new legal business form. They are like normal partnerships, but provide more organisational flexibility. They also share the benefits of less liability with limited companies).

A company is the most formal way of establishing a business. You will have to decide if you want to be a limited company or an unlimited one, a charity, a profit making or a not for profit company.

There is a lot of information available for people who want to set up groups, partnerships and companies:

The Voluntary Arts Network (VAN) has a whole area of its website dedicated to ‘Running Your Group’. It has sections on starting out, governance, legal, money and people matters, monitoring and evaluation, marketing and publicity, networks and events and IT and computing. This link will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to VAN’s site (www.voluntaryarts.org). Then click on Running Your Group to get to the information.
 

Arts Council England has an information sheet on ‘Starting a Business’ that looks at the various choices open to you when you start out, including starting a partnership. This link will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to Arts Council England’s site, at the page where you can download the information sheet. (www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/ information_detail.php?sid=3&id=70&page=2)

CIDA, the Cultural Industries Development Agency in East London has a series of factsheets that can help including one called ‘Creative Partnerships which explains more about partnerships. If you follow this link it will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to the list of factsheets on the CIDA site (www.cida.co.uk/pages/resources/factsheets_70.shtml)

Business Link can provide support here too. They have information on choosing and setting up the right legal structure for your business. If you follow this link, it will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to this part of the Business Link site (www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer? r.l1=1073858808&r.l3=1073865436&topicId =1073859215&r.l2=1073859215&r.s=m).

There are also training courses available for people wanting to start their own businesses. Two options are those run by London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC) and Voluntary Arts Network.

London Voluntary Service Council run a course called ‘Ready, Steady, Start’ to provide people with information and support and help them make the right choice for them. To find out more about ‘Ready, Steady, Start’ follow this link. This will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to the Ready, Steady, Start part of the LVSC site (www.lvsc.org.uk/Templates/information.asp?NodeID=90042)
 
Voluntary Arts Network run a course called ‘Running your group’ which offers support at a basic level – what do you need to get a group up and running? To find out more about this course follow this link. This will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to the ‘Running your group’ part of the VAN site (www.voluntaryarts.org/cgi-bin/website.cgi?tier1=network&tier2=running your group&tier3=home&fp=true)

Some areas of the arts have specific courses. The Independent Theatre Council (ITC) run a course, for example, on Starting a Performance Arts Company and the Craft Council run a number of schemes to support new crafts makers.

This link will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to ITC’s site at the list of courses (www.itc-arts.org/a-z.php).

This link will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to Craft Council’s site where it shows how it supports makers (www.craftscouncil.org.uk/guide/index.html).

Check out some of the organisations listed by art form in the Keeping Going section of this resource for other places to contact to find out about more relevant courses.