Delays to the Arts Council design roster

The Arts Council’s search for a roster of ‘cutting-edge’ design groups able to transform its image (DW 3 July) is set togo on for two months longer than planned.

The £1.5m national roster was to be announced in November, but will not be unveiled until January now. The council blames the delay on ‘technical hitches caused by some consultancies submitting very large files with their pre-qualification questionnaires’.

A longlist of 242 design groups was whittled down earlier this month to 54, with 38 vying for about ten spaces on the marketing communications section and 16 competing for five brand development places.

‘We are very eager to be rostered, as this will soon be the only way we can pick up work from the Arts Council,’ says a spokeswoman from a group shortlisted for the marketing roster.

The next stage of the tender process involves developing proposals for either an annual Arts Council report or a campaign for its affordable art scheme, Own Art.

Following submission of the proposals in mid-November, successful consultancies will meet with members of the council’s marketing team in December to discuss how they would work with it. A final roster will then be announced next year.

The council is formalising the roster for a push to reposition itself as ‘more arts and less council’, according to its marketing officer Elizabeth Marston (pictured), who says the council will favour ‘innovative and cutting-edge’ design groups.