- How is ELCAF run?
ELCAF is comprised of a very small core team made up of three part time freelance staff – a curator, a creative producer and a coordinator. We operate with the mindset of a community festival. We do all of our own fundraising and we strongly believe in the importance of paying artists and freelancers fairly for being part of our programme and team, as well as offering fair fees for exhibitors and accessible ticket prices to our visitors.
- Is ELCAF a non-profit event?
ELCAF is run as a break-even annual community event with grant funding, sponsorship and exhibitor and visitor revenue. If (on the rare occasion) profit is achieved after an edition, the revenue is rolled into the following year’s event. This means all funding raised for ELCAF and all revenue generated by ELCAF is spent on the event and related community events.
- How else is ELCAF funded?
ELCAF is funded through two main strands. The first and largest is income earned from ticket sales and table fees. The second is through grant funding. Each year we apply for grant funding from the Arts Council, and if approved ELCAF provides comprehensive evidence and reporting on its activity.
Further information on the conditions of Arts Council grants can be found on the following website: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/standard-conditions-grants
- How does ELCAF spend its money?
The money ELCAF raises goes towards the complex costs of running a festival, which include artist expenses; participation fees, materials, travel and accommodation as well as production costs; venue and furniture hire, insurance, the freelance wages of the ELCAF team, graphic designers, photographers and filmmakers, AV hire and technicians, and much more.
- Does ELCAF receive any other support?
Yes. ELCAF is fortunate to receive support-in-kind from public institutions and organisations which allow us opportunities to:
- Run a season of events, such as HOI, AOI, Gipsy Hill, Hackney Council
- Boost our marketing possibilities, such as Gipsy Hill and Broken Frontier
- Provide an office space and business infrastructure to work from, supporting our administrative needs – Nobrow.
We also receive partner sponsorship which goes towards:
- Covering the winner’s fee, prizes and associated costs of the ELCAF Award and ELCAF Audience Award from WeTransfer and Cass Art.
And, over many years we have been lucky enough to receive contributions towards artist’s travel, accommodation and fees from international public funding bodies such as Accion Cultural, Goethe Institute, Pro Helvetia and Institut Français.
- How is ELCAF linked to Nobrow?
ELCAF was founded by Nobrow in 2012 as a one day festival in Shoreditch, London. In 2015, ELCAF started to be run by an independent freelance team. Whilst receiving support and advice from Sam Arthur (the festival co-founder) and the marketing team at Nobrow, the independent festival team have been responsible for the structure, budget, planning, programming and production of all aspects of the event.
Over the years Nobrow has, and continues to offer support to ELCAF by providing free office and storage space, as well as supporting the complex marketing and financial administration associated with the festival. Nobrow have published a statement on their website about their relationship with us too. They are a publishing company and we are a community festival.
