Jerwood Arts Live Work Fund
Individuals or collaborations, up to £20k, deadline 16 November
British Council Digital Collaboration Fund
Grants up to £50k, deadline 18 November
Arts Council Project Grants
For individuals or organisations is open with no deadline (NPOs are currently able to make one application in this financial year)
Arts Council Developing Your Creative Practice
For individuals (Round 8) is open with a deadline of midday on Thursday 5 November. Round 9 opens w/c 21 December.
Collective encounters – women in action
Women in Action is a new project that uses drama and creativity to harness women’s resilience, leadership and activism in their communities. Over two years, the project will provide opportunities for women aged 18+ to reflect on the role women play in community organising – by taking part in training, gathering and sharing seldom heard stories, and organising for positive change.
The Women in Action project was developed before the coronavirus pandemic. However, rather than postpone it we have refocused our plans in recognition of the ways this has already changed many women’s lives.
Wiltshire Creative
Wiltshire Creative remain committed to supporting and working with artists across platforms and art forms. Their online platform supports artists in a number of ways from script reading, creative Inspiration, artist surgeries and casting meetings.
Beyond Face
Offering one to one support and workshop sessions for artists of colour.
Email alix@beyondface.co.uk
Support for Dancers
The Dance fund will be supporting freelance dancers across genres including ballet, contemporary, Black and Asian dance and hip hop including those with portfolio careers, e.g. choreography, who whose work would normally include employment in the subsidised dance sector.
Support for Actors, Performers and Stage Managers
Equity Charitable Trust will be supporting anyone who has previously worked on an Equity contract, but isn’t necessarily a member of Equity themselves.
Support for Writers
The Society of Authors has support for all professional authors who are resident in the UK or British subjects – including all types of writers, illustrators, literary translators, scriptwriters, poets, journalists and others – for whom author-related activities make up a substantial amount of their annual income.
Arts Council England
Arts Council England are making £160 million of emergency funding available for those organisations and individuals who will need it during this crisis, and have also changed the funding requirements for individuals and organisations currently in receipt of funding, to help alleviate pressure on them as best they can.
Support for backstage and front of house workers
The Theatrical guild have a variety of support for anyone who has spent a significant proportion of their career to date training for and / or working in a relevant backstage or front of house position. That includes any kind of stage technician or engineer; stage managers, stagehands and flymen; anyone involved in costume, hair or makeup; designers and makers of sets, props or puppets; and ushers or box office staff.
past opportunities:
The Exeter Northcott
‘The Time is Now’ Artist Commissions – The Northcott are offering South West-based artists the chance apply for one of five £1000 commissions to create a piece of work that can be presented in a format that people can enjoy remotely.
Vital Spark
Are you an artist who identifies as BAME, D/deaf or disabled? Do you have a story to tell?
During the Covid-19 pandemic The Spark wants to inject creativity into the homes of children through a new collection of short stories told digitally. They will commission 10 artists to write and present these short stories.
m6 Theatre Company
During this time of isolation, distance and fear, our relationships with each other, our families, friends, the world around us and with ourselves has never felt more important. To unlock more short powerful stories from a diverse range of voices and to chronicle this extraordinary period, M6 Theatre Company are launching a monologue writing competition, open to all writers of any experience, under the title: Love in the Time of Corona.
Popelei Seed Commission 2020 – New opportunity for Writers & Actors
Popelei invite you to write and send in a new short monologue (maximum 4 minutes) for a female character who has had some kind of restriction placed on her liberty. Her freedom could be restricted physically, psychologically, emotionally, sexually or anything you can imagine. Her locks and bolts could be very overt or they could be very subtle. Her story could take place in past, the future or the present.
The Writers’ Block
The Writers’ Block Creative Writing Competition –
Submissions open 1st April – 1st May
The Writers’ Block Competition opens on 1st April 2020 for entries of prose fiction up to 500 words in length or poetry of up to 10 lines written on the theme of ‘Change‘. There are three age categories for this competition: 8-11 years, 12-17 years, 18+ years
Kickstarting Fiction – An online masterclass
– Friday 15 May – 10am-12pm
Whether your aim is to write a novel or the shortest of short stories, Kickstarting Fiction will equip you with a stash of tools to help your writing shine. During this short course, you will look at ways to get started and techniques to keep you on the right track from the first word to the last.
Filmmaking Course – A Virtual course for Young Filmmakers
Age range 14 – 26 years. No experience necessary. Start date March 30th. Ongoing rolling entry. Students will meet weekly in small groups with teacher Jack Price on Google Hangouts and work up to the production of a film of their own. They will learn to develop their writing, pre-production, photography, sound, editing and post-production skills through a course designed to deliver a film for each participant.
Free membership to The South West Actor’s Network
Free membership to ‘The South West Actor’s Network’ for the next 3 months or as long as the crisis lasts, with no obligation to continue afterwards. During this current crisis we are offering free membership for existing and new members, as well as a 50% discount to recent graduate actors once normality resumes.
The Writers’ Block
Speakeasy – An online sharing event for emerging writers –
7 May, 4 June, 23 July 6.30-8.30pm
– Hook Up, Line Up, Speak Up – Here comes our next Speakeasy session. Share your work, meet other writers, discover new talent. Are you a storyteller, poet, fiction writer, comic or perhaps a musician? Come and experience some of Cornwall’s up-and-coming writing talent.
A Sense of Place – A Nature Writing Masterclass
– 13 June 10am-12pm
As writers – whether we write fiction or non-fiction – it is perhaps more important than ever to re-ground ourselves; to find a sense of place. We need to find ways of communicating setting and environment to our readers, to help them feel a new connection. In this masterclass, through reading, writing and discussing, we will go on a sensory exploration of setting together and discover new ways of communicating a sense of place to our readers. Led by author, editor and lecturer Anna Wilson.
Harnessing Creativity – An Online Yoga and Writing Workshop
– 18 July 10am-12pm
Kate Prince from The Peaceful Yoga Body is an experienced yoga teacher who focuses on yoga to support creativity. This will be a unique Creative Writing and Yoga session created for The Writers’ Block. Breathe into your creativity and see what comes.
National Rural Touring Forum
The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) is hosting fortnightly artist support meetings on zoom. You do not have to be a member of the NRTF to join these calls, so please do take advantage of the chance to connect with other performers and share ideas, discuss concerns and keep up to date with the latest advice and guidance that the NRTF are receiving. If you aren’t already receiving this information and meeting links directly from NRTF, please contact admin@nrtf.org.uk to get added to the list.
Creativity works – Digital Tools and Techniques for Artists & Creatives
Join Sara Pugh, co-founder and Managing Director of design and marketing agency Eight Wire, and members of her team, for this series of five one and a half hour sessions, focusing on the digital tools and techniques that can help you establish your creative practice and business online.
Creativity Works – How can we maintain our practice as socially-engaged artists?
Join participatory artist and illustrator Ellie Shipman to explore the question: ‘How can we maintain our practice as socially-engaged artists?’ in this participatory virtual workshop over two sessions.
Ellie will present her experience from her own socially-engaged practice, as well as sharing examples of new social practice springing up in response to COVID-19 and other remote participatory art projects to inspire and intrigue.
Bricks – REACHING RESILIENCE
Reaching Resilience is a six month programme to support visual artists in Bristol to be supported by their practice. It’s a catalyst to start a step change in visual arts in Bristol, supporting both stronger individual artist practices and a stronger sector together. This programme has emerged both from the needs of artists through Covid-19 but also the wider systemic issues that have made practice as a visual artist in Bristol increasingly precarious.
THE DORSET (& BCP) ARTISTS’ EMERGENCY FUND
Freelance creatives living and working in Dorset (this includes Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch) who are experiencing severe financial hardship due to COVID-19.
This fund is for individuals who are unable to receive support from other resources and not eligible or meeting the criteria for other funds like this one. We are looking at creatives in the broadest of terms, this includes artists, musicians, comedians, visual artists, performers, directors, actors, writers, film makers, producers, curators, clowns etc.
THE GANE TRUST HARDSHIP FUND
£500 bursaries available for creative practitioners in financial need. Tobacco Factory Theatres is working in partnership with The Cube Microplex to administer a hardship fund for artists and arts-workers living in the Bristol area. This fund has been generously donated by The Gane Trust to assist creative practitioners who are currently experiencing financial hardship due to Covid-19.
Kevin Elyot Award for Writer-in-Residence – call for submissions 2020
The Kevin Elyot Award is an annual award of £3,000 given to support a writer-in-residence at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection. It is made in memory of Kevin Elyot (1951-2014) – an alumnus of the University Drama Department – and the influence he has had on writing and the Arts.
Support for artists and arts organisers who make exhibitions happen
a-n The Artists Information Company will be supporting those who work in visual art. Support given to self-employed art handlers, technicians, art installers, conservators and restorers, and those who help other artists in the production of their work.
Support for Outdoor and Seasonal Performers
OutdoorArtsUK will be supporting freelance and self-employed individuals working in the Outdoor Arts sector, including street arts, carnival, street dance, mela and the outdoor festival context within funded, non-funded and commercial festivals. These freelancers are particularly affected by the seasonal nature of their work, making the vast majority of their annual income in the summer months.
Please note, the page will be updated regularly.