In our ten year strategyMaking Great Art Work (PDF, 3.29 MB), a key objective is to get better at understanding the effect of our investment by improving the way we collect and analyse information. We will use this evidence to inform our advocacy, advice and wider communication.

Artists and arts organisations are in the process of providing us with information on work completed in 2018 online using the arts activity report portal. This builds on the information supplied with the application form through the forecast arts activity template and the budget arts activity report approved after the funding offer. 

The Arts Activity Report portal allows users report accurately and consistently on the planned and actual outputs of their work within a given period of time. While the Arts Council has always collected information of this kind, we have never had a centralised process for collecting all of this information online.

Artists and organisations in receipt of the following funding must use the portal to provide actual arts activity reports on their work by the end date set out in the payment guide received with the funding offer. 

How do I fill out the Actual Arts Activity Report?

The information asked for in the report ranges from numeric data – such as the number of artist employed – to slightly more complex information about the nature of their work and who the intended beneficiaries of those activities are.The intention is to prepare aggregate reports on activities funded by the Arts Council annually. In time, by collecting the data consistently year-on-year, these reports will allow to to better understand the long-term benefits to people of ongoing investment in the arts at a national level.

Download our PowerPoint presentation (358 KB) on how to fill out the Actual Arts Activity Report for 2018 and how we plan to use the data. 

FAQs

The income and expenditure figures entered for the Actual-AAR 2018 largely tally with my audited accounts but there are some small differences.

This is the first year we have asked people to complete the Actual-AAR. We understand that there may be some small differences between your audited accounts and the figures you enter for your Actual-AAR.

As part of our review process for the AAR later this year, we will look at the relationship between annual accounts and the income and expenditure figures to understand better why there may be differences so we can improve the process for the future.

Whole time equivalent (WTE) staff contribute to activities as well as core work. Should I include whole time equivalent staff within an activity for number of artists employed/number of others employed?

No – staff numbers should only be entered into the Whole-time equivalent staff section in the Core Costs section.

There is no Budget-AAR 2018 data in the AAR portal. Do I have to resubmit the Budget-AAR 2018 data?

You do not have to resubmit the BAAR 2018 data. You are only required to submit Actual-AAR 2018 data.

I was required to take out additional insurance for an activity on top of my organisation insurance costs. Should I include this as a separate cost in the activity?

Yes – you should include this as a separate cost in the activity as it only relates to this activity.

Does the AAR portal automatically save my data?

The AAR portal doesn’t auto save data, the user must explicitly use the Save button. The reason behind this is that a user can cancel out of any of the data entry screens (for example if they realise they’ve made mistakes or are unsure if they’ve accidentally changed any values that were previously saved).

The timeout is set to 20 minutes and resets each time the user performs an action so as long as they save within that time everything will be ok. There is also the warning box that pops up to alert the user the session is about to timeout.