A 12-month period within an arts facility’s operation.

Although this could take the form of a ‘calendar year’ (i.e. January to December), a ‘financial year’ (the 12-month period for which an organisation prepares its accounts) or an ‘artistic year’ (i.e. from the first to last event in an organisation’s event calendar), for purposes of uniform and direct comparison with patterns of public funding  a ‘fiscal year’ is recommended here as the basic period to use (i.e. the 12-month period that the UK government uses as the basis for its budgeting and accounting processes = the income tax year = 6 April 200X to 5 April 200X+1).

Whichever definition type of ‘year’ is used, reports and commentaries should be specific on the one being used.