Over the past couple weeks, Arts Council England has announced two rounds of recipients for their Culture Recovery Fund aid package. The organization has been criticized for denying relief to certain creative institutions while awarding others sizable sums – not the least of which being their £967,679 grant to Paradigm Agency.
Paradigm Agency is headquartered in London and was previously known as CODA Agency. In 2014, Los Angeles firm Paradigm Talent Agency acquired a 50% stake in the CODA, which then took its parent company’s name in 2019. Confusion stemming from the rebrand led U.K. culture stakeholders to question why Arts Council England would award almost £1 million to a U.S. company despite its criteria explicitly stating that Culture Recovery Fund grants are “only open to organisations based in England.”
Paradigm Talent Agency’s equity in Paradigm Agency might raise eyebrows nonetheless. Such was the case with Boiler Room, a private company that was awarded a £791,652 Culture Recovery Fund grant despite being founded in partnership with U.S. equity financing firm Conegliano Ventures. Further complicating the broadcasting platform’s aid was their dubious profitability; the company posted net losses in the millions for both 2018 and 2019.
Arts Council England has distributed £334 million of the £500 million allocated for the cultural recovery fund. All grants of more than £1 million will be announced in a future round.
