As the projects move into mainstream funding programmes, this support and commitment from public and private players will become crucial to developing this work further. The other significant area of potential is the larger arts organisations. Banking on Culture concludes that third system financial instruments have a key role to play in delivering financial resources and services to the cultural and creative industries. These instruments can take a number of key forms, depending on the local needs as well as fiscal, legislative and political conditions within each region of Europe. The findings emphasised the links between sustainable funds, deal flow and population coverage.
Small funds covering small localities are unlikely ever to become financially viable.
Nor are funds that are highly sector-specific. At the same time we were aware of small scale projects that met their own aims successfully and were also able to preserve an intimacy and contact with their client group that larger organisations may lack. This opens up the possibility of local delivery points, operating on an intimate scale, which can also take advantage of economies of scale in the back office provision. Cultural businesses need highly specialised business support delivered alongside finance. Only a few areas are getting this at the moment.