About the Arts Council
The Arts Council of the Velocity Interoperability Network is the public body responsible for the arts across the Velocity Interoperability Network. It funds artists and arts organisations, commissions and cares for public art at Network sites, supports artists through residencies, studios and bursaries, and advises the Network and its member organisations on the arts.
The Council was established on 6 September 2026. Before that date each member organisation of the Network made its own arrangements for the arts: some ran grant funds, some commissioned works for their sites, and some did neither. The Council brings these arrangements together under one body with common rules, a single timetable of funding rounds and a single register of awards and commissions. Every award made under the interim arrangements of the transition period is honoured on its original terms.
Principles. The Council works to four principles. Decisions on funding are made by panels at arm's length from the Network's governing bodies. The criteria against which applications are judged are published before a round opens, and every applicant receives a written decision with reasons. Awards, commissions and the Council's own expenditure are recorded in public registers. Public art is commissioned for the places where the staff and citizens of the Network live and work, and is maintained for as long as it stands.
Responsibilities. The Council's work falls into five areas.
- Funding the arts
- Grants to individual artists, small groups and arts organisations through four programmes, assessed by panels against published criteria and recorded in a public register.
- Public art
- Commissioning new work for the public places of Network sites, maintaining the register of public art and caring for the works in it.
- Support for artists
- Residencies at Network sites, the register of affordable studios, development bursaries and the register of artists.
- Advice to the Network
- Advice to the governing bodies of the Network and to member organisations on the arts, on the treatment of art in building and site projects, and on the arts in public life.
- Reporting
- Quarterly reports on awards made, the annual report and accounts, and the published minutes of the Council and its committees.
The Council at establishment. The figures below describe the Council on 6 September 2026. They are drawn from the returns made by member organisations during the transition period and from the Council's first report on awards.
- 4
- Funding programmes, with the first rounds opening between 7 September and 5 October 2026
- 9
- Public art commissions at six Network sites transferred to the Council on establishment
- 169
- Awards made under interim arrangements and honoured by the Council in full
- 84
- Studios at six sites on the Council's studio register at establishment
Organisation. The Council consists of a Chair and ten members, and is supported by a secretariat under a Director. Its four committees and the schedule of its meetings are set out on the Council and Committees page. The Council's budget for its first year of operation, to 31 August 2027, is 19,000,000 credits, of which 16,300,000 credits is available for grants and commissions.
For the Council's origins and the milestones since its establishment, see History. General enquiries may be sent to contact@arts.gov.vin.