Episode 032 - Fran Sanderson (Nesta) on shifting how they support the arts, what effective funding looks like, and thinking differently about value and risk

Digital Works Podcast

A conversation with Fran Sanderson, Director of Arts Programmes and Investments at Nesta (which was originally set up in 1998 as the National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts).
Fran is in the process of exploring a major shift in the way Nesta goes about making investments in the arts.
We discuss the funding landscape for culture in the UK and the changes that need to happen. We explore what effective funding for digital projects might look like, how the cultural sector could think differently about value, risk appetite, new business and investment models, how the sector views popularity, learning in the open, and loads more.
Here is more information about some of the programmes and schemes that we mentioned.

• The RSC Rothschild Foundation Digital Fellowships
• Audience of the Future
• Nesta Digital R&D Fund for the Arts
• Nesta Digital Culture Survey

And here is the trailer for David Byrne's American Utopia.