WeFund offers a vital funding option for the nation's beleaguered arts scene. Tom Jeffreys meets founder Michael Troughton.
When the recession came, the art world laughed. That'll show those nasty bankers, we thought. What have we to lose who have nothing in the first place? Then the cuts came, and the art world wept. Our precious Arts Council funding! The big names wheeled themselves out to protest – David Shrigley did a little video, Mark Wallinger co-opted Turner, and Anish Kapoor announced that he was, gasp, “worried”. All of which had no effect – the Arts Council has its budget slashed by nearly 30% and cultural types across the UK began to fear the worst.
Whilst the great and the good dithered, some people got on and did things – one of whom, Michael Troughton, has set up an innovative website called WeFund.co.uk that provides an alternative source of funding for impoverished creative folk. I met up with Michael in a rather pleasant pub in Fitzrovia to discuss the concept over a pint of generic lager.
Previously a lawyer at an environmental law firm, Michael saw the success of Kickstarter.com, the American version of crowdfunding, and decided that something similar could work here. “It was last summer,” he says, “and the cuts were on the horizon. I always wanted to do something else anyway, so I just started. I basically had a rush of blood to the head. I was in a position to be able to press 'go' pretty quickly. Besides, I've had that process of having an idea and seeing someone else doing it. Mexican food in London – that was my idea!”
From burritos to crowdfunding – but how does it actually work? In short, those in need of money for creative projects propose the idea to WeFund.co.uk. If it gets approved then the person makes a video, outlines the project in brief, comes up with incentives for people to donate their cash, and then, as Michael puts it, “they go out there and bang the drum”.
It only launched in October 2010, but already WeFund has raised a total of £17,000 for a broad range of creative projects, of which they take just a 5% cut. From the oddest little projects to major institutions who've just had their budgets cut, WeFund caters to pretty much anything, as long as it's creative. So far six projects have been successfully funded through WeFund, including new arts and literature quarterly The White Review, theatre project Epic, and 'the world's first purpose-built mobile poetry emporium', the wicked Poetry Takeaway.
In order to encourage people to get involved, WeFund projects offer various incentives that depend on the amount of money pledged. “These vary,” Michael explains, “from £1 being a simple thank-you to £3,000 being a full opera in your own house. Dinner with the director, invitations to dress rehearsals, limited edition prints – people have been really creative.
It's a process that's about more than money: “in some ways,” Michael admits, “it's about vanity, because you can take your girlfriend to the theatre, open the programme and say 'hey, look, it's me!' And I am appealing to anything, you know. Drunken philanthropy, vanity philanthropy – anything to get £25!”
Michael continues: “I hope that by people using WeFund they actually get something more than just paying money towards a theatre project; they actually become a part of a cultural community in London and around the world. I think a lot of people are quite intimidated by art and artists – it's definitely them and us, audience and artist – and I think sites like WeFund will break down that barrier. The whole process becomes more collaborative.”
One concern I have is that the arts become subsumed within a kind of popularity contest, and it's something Michael has clearly considered. “That danger has to be managed,” he admits, but points out that the cuts have hit the practitioners of smaller, riskier projects the hardest, and that crowdfunding doesn't have the same box-ticking approach that Arts Council funding understandably has to. “There's still room within crowdfunding to shock, to lead, and to inspire. WeFund actually brings great creative freedom.” And in an age of austerity, it's a ray of hope for the arts, worldwide.
WeFund.co.uk
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