AN EFFICIENT WAY TO PROCESS GRANTS

I believe that organisations processing application bids of less than £5000 from artists and arts organisations should not consider the merits of each case but leave the outcome to chance. They should look through the bidding documents to see that the bid makes sense, ensure that it is not pornographic, sexist or racist and then throw the name into a hat and wait for the month end. On the last Thursday of every month they should ask a pre-school child or a passing magpie to pick out a name. The names out of the bag get the money.

Too much time is spent filling in over complicated Arts Funding bidding documents for everyone's health. Who cannot possibly be qualified to assess which projects are likely to succeed and which to fail. There are too many variables.

Two of Yorkshire's most adventurous arts projects, Dean Clough and Saltaire, would not have got anywhere if officers had appeared offering money and asked Ernest Hall and Jonathan Silver what they intended to do with the grant and how the siting would help the host community.

Another virtue of this way of working is its morality. The Johns and Janes who invest in lottery tickets and scratch cards in the belief that luck is on their side would see this process mirrored in the way the money is doled out.