The International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies’ (IFACCA) has recently published its 38th D’Art report about the existent approaches to funding multidisciplinary arts.

It summarizes the contributions of 75 international arts councils and related bodies that participated in the survey, from which a total of 13 responses were received from public funders in 10 countries.

For a start, it is particularly interesting to read through the different definitions given for the term “multidisciplinary arts”, which generally applies to the presence of more than one discipline in an artistic process, product or event. Yet, some funders make a distinction between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary arts- emphasizing the experimental and innovative quality of the “inter” category and differentiating it from the “combined arts” component.

Other terms used which are close in aim and definition would be “hybrid art”,”inter-art” or “multi-art”.

About the different funding approaches, here there is a good summary:

“Some funders are interested in developing sustainable communities, and encourage indigenous and community arts practices, such as Maori or Malay arts or circus arts. Some funders internationally provide support to new media through separate programs, though most acknowledge that interdisciplinary artists may also use new media. In some countries, support for multidisciplinary arts extends as well to new critical practices, and to Aboriginal or other culturally diverse art forms.

Most funders responding to the survey indicated that they use peers to assess funding applications. Assessment criteria can be either specially tailored to multidisciplinary arts, or be more general, and may include artistic merit, viability, impact, artistic development and strategic considerations.

Among responders who reported on their resource allocations, resources earmarked for multidisciplinary arts range from 3% of total granting budgets to 11%. “

Overall, the report is a must-and-quick read for all those involved in new media arts, collaborative arts across disciplines and practitioners of several art forms.

You can download it in English and French:

http://www.ifacca.org/topic/multidisciplinary-arts/