Introducing Figurative

It is with great excitement that I introduce you to Figurative, a bold new organisation driving new ideas for a thriving cultural and creative sector. Figurative incorporates two existing teams – Arts & Culture Finance (ACF), who previously operated as a division of Nesta, and the New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture (NPAC) group – with a huge range of experience in the fields of social investment, philanthropy and fundraising, programme design, impact measurement and more.

And we will be even greater than the sum of our parts. We aim to become the leading impact, investment and innovation agency for the cultural and creative sector (CCS), offering a full spectrum of support for inspiring organisations, and building strong new networks and links into philanthropic and social investment circles.

We are a small, dedicated team, with bags of experience and enthusiasm for the cultural and creative sector, and we can’t wait to get to work developing promising new funding, impact and business models with and for our partners.

Over the coming years, we aim to:

• Attract significant new investment to the CCS by raising and managing new social investment funds and supporting the sector to diversify its funding streams and networks. As ACF, the team already manages £30m of capital supporting 55 organisations via three social impact funds – the Arts Impact Fund, Cultural Impact Development Fund, and Arts & Culture Impact Fund (the latter of which is still open for applicants). NPAC’s inaugural Arts for Impact matched funding campaign with the Big Give raised £2.85m for cultural organisations this year, while its 15 place-based networks across England rally new donors to local causes, building support where it is needed in the sector.
• Make the UK a global hub for cultural innovation by removing barriers to research and development, empowering cultural and creative not-for-profits to compete with the private sector to develop game-changing ideas. Figurative will design world-leading innovation programmes that offer intensive support for organisations experimenting with funding and business models, tech and other ideas. Drawing on the team’s experience with Nesta’s Digital R&D Fund for the Arts, RSC’s Dream partnership and other initiatives, the programmes will encourage collaborative partnerships and a culture of shared learning so that more organisations can meet the needs and interests of their communities in inventive and engaging ways.
• Be a centre of excellence for arts and impact, working with CCS organisations to monitor and articulate the difference they make in the world. Figurative will look particularly at how social and environmental goals can be supported by impact investment initiatives and other forms of socially responsible finance which offer potential solutions to some of the funding dilemmas facing the sector. The team will work with its portfolio to develop flexible yet robust impact frameworks that capture the scope and nuance of their activities, gathering compelling evidence for the positive impacts of the CCS as a whole and championing its valuable work to those in a position to support it.

Alongside these key pillars of work, we will pursue pioneering research, advocacy and advisory opportunities with partners around the world, to forge deeper relationships between the cultural industries, impact sector and philanthropic networks.

Our team has a strong track record of thought leadership in this area. In 2023, ACF authored the seminal report, Impact Investing in the Cultural and Creative Sectors, commissioned by the UK’s Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre. It is also behind the Creativity, Culture, Capital essay collection, co-produced by ACF, Upstart Co-Lab (USA) and Fundación Compromiso (Argentina).

We are committed to demonstrating how investing in the UK’s cultural and creative assets can generate far-reaching economic and social benefits and fire our collective imagination. And we are always on the lookout for new potential investees, as well as for partners from across the cultural and creative, financial, impact and other sectors. If you have an idea for a new business, impact or funding model that you want help to develop, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We look forward to working with you!