Procurement description
The Commissioner
Arts Council of Wales (ACW)
The Arts Council of Wales is an independent charity, established by Royal Charter in 1994. It is also a Welsh Government Sponsored Body and is the official body that funds and develops the arts in Wales. It is the official distributor of National Lottery arts funding in Wales.
The Context
In September 2020, Natural Resources Wales and Arts Council of Wales signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining a shared vision for future partnership working. The purpose of the partnership is to help to cultivate the relationship between the arts and the natural environment, as part of a shared commitment to improve the environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. This partnership has formulated into the Creative Nature Programme, which has delivered two phases of activity in 2022 and 2023-25 including the following:
• Future Wales Fellowship 2022 and 2023-25: A transformational opportunity for 16 artists to create new work that disrupts current thinking about i) food, energy and transport systems in 2022 and ii) connection with nature in 2023-25.
• Plan for Climate Justice and the Arts: The Plan outlines our strategy for delivering against the climate justice principle within ACW’s Strategic Framework, including a 10-year Action Plan. It outlines the action we will take to help achieve an arts sector which supports creativity that inspires people to take action for climate justice and an environmentally sustainable and globally responsible arts sector grounded in social justice.
• A Nature strand within ACW’s Arts Health & Wellbeing Lottery fund that invites arts organisations to work with health, environmental and higher education institutions to explore the wellbeing benefits of connecting people to nature.
• NRW’s Natur am Byth arts engagement programme which engages communities with the species that are under threat and connect people to nature to benefit health and wellbeing.
• A series of conversations to draw together individuals within different organisations who have been creating opportunities for artists and creative individuals working on connection to nature. The series will join up the cultural sector, environmental sector and organisations that manage land.
ACW and NRW have set out a transition year for the Creative Nature Programme in 2025-26, which will focus on scoping out the possibility of a ‘climate justice and nature connection consortium’ of environmental and land manager organisations, and reviewing options for the structure, constitution and funding of the group.
This activity corresponds with the following 2025-26 action in ACW’s Plan for Climate Justice and the Arts (p.29):
“Establish a focus group for artists and creative individuals with diverse lived experience, as well as organisations in the cultural sector and environmental sector, and organisations that manage land, to identify:
- opportunities for impactful climate justice and nature collaborations, between the arts and other sectors
- the spaces and resources that could be made available for artists whose work connects to nature and climate justice themes in Wales.
- initiatives for artists and creative individuals to be actively involved in decision making processes related to the climate and nature emergencies at local, national and international levels.”
An initial meeting of environmental and land manager organisations exploring the possibility of a ‘climate justice and nature connection consortium’ in February 2025 suggested the following actions as desirable short to medium term outcomes for the group:
• Create Terms of Reference for the group that outlines its purpose, the rationale for its membership and the processes to bring other voices into the space to shape its work.
• Create a statement of intent linking environmental, land-based and cultural organisations working in Wales
• Explore and pilot ways of collaborating to deliver long-term artist residencies and programmes in Wales, maximising resources across organisations
• Consolidate and share evidence of impact of the arts for the environmental sector. Pull together case studies across sectors, link to Wellbeing of Future Generations goals, commission deep case studies across time, potentially commission an external evaluator, create an online archive of projects
• Create a glossary of terms that helps to advocate for the arts, understanding that language itself is a barrier
• Develop a community of practice to share current and future work, best practice and inspirational international work.
These actions will form the basis of the work for 2025-26.
This Contract
This invitation to tender is for a Service Provider to undertake the following actions:
i) design and deliver four meetings of the ‘climate justice and nature connection consortium’ in 2025-26, and
ii) deliver a scoping report that explores potential structural models and fundraising models for the work of the consortium beyond 2025-26.
The scoping exercise of the Climate Justice and Nature Connection consortium 2025-26 can be carried out by either an organisation or freelancer(s) with proven experience of fundraising and delivering research or scoping exercises to inform the development of new partnership initiatives. They will need to be able to:
• Develop a robust plan and timeline for delivery of four meetings of the consortium between September 2025 and March 2026 (completion by the 31st of March 2026). The plan will need to be agreed with partners from ACW and NRW.
o Two meetings will be held in person (September 2025 and January 2026) and two online (November 2025 and March 2026).
o The service provider will be responsible for organising all aspects of the meeting including venues, catering, speakers, attendee fees for unsalaried participants, programming, accessibility, communication with consortium members. Costs for all of these aspects will need to be included within the service provider’s budget. ACW will cover the costs of a Welsh language simultaneous translator for the four meetings and translation of the final report, but the service provider will cover any costs of translation of day-to-day communications with the consortium.
• Through discussion with ACW and NRW and with feedback from Consortium members, agree an approach for involving arts organisations, artists and creative individuals with diverse lived experience within the project.
• The meetings should deliver the following actions which have been suggested as desirable short to medium term outcomes for the group:
o Create Terms of Reference for the group that outlines its purpose, the rationale for its membership and the processes to bring other voices into the space to shape its work.
o Create a statement of intent linking environmental, land-based and cultural organisations working in Wales
o Create a glossary of terms that helps to advocate for the arts, understanding that language itself is a barrier
o Recommend a model of community of practice to share current and future work, best practice and inspirational international work
• Develop and deliver a report by February 2026, for review by the consortium in the March 2026 meeting, which includes and addresses the following:
o The consortium’s terms of reference and statement of intent
o A glossary of terms that helps to advocate for the role of the arts within environmental action, understanding that language itself is a barrier
o A review of existing arts and environmental programmes in Wales, other UK nations and internationally, identifying successful models which could be adapted or replicated
o Outline a process for consolidating evidence of impact of arts and environment work across organisations in Wales and linking to the Wellbeing of Future Generations goals
o Gather case studies exemplifying the work of consortium members
o Explore how the consortium could work together in future
to develop a community of practice to share current and future work, best practice and inspirational international work
to explore different ways of collaborating to deliver long-term artist residencies and programmes in Wales, maximising resources across organisations
o Explore and recommend structural model options
o Support the establishment of a collaborative fundraising group to screen funding options and submit applications for the continuation of work beyond March 2026
• Work closely with the Arts Council of Wales and Natural Resources Wales to ensure our wider priorities around equalities and diversity and the Welsh language are addressed and embedded within the project delivery.
• Report to the Portfolio Manager for Climate Justice on a monthly basis by phone/email and/or online meetings as required.
• Present the final report to the Creative Nature Steering Group in March 2025.