News

Funding Opportunities

Opportunities

Creative England have established a new partnership with the British Business Bank, to unlock new and important investment opportunities for all subsectors of the UK’s creative industries.  The new government-backed Start Up Loans for the creative industries will offer borrowing of up to £25,000 at a fixed interest rate of 6% per annum, repayable over 1-5 years. As well as providing access to early financing, the loans will also include 12 months of post-investment mentoring support for recipients.  Applicants are welcome from any UK subsector of the creative industry; from young practitioners or experienced freelancers, to creative Start Ups less than two years old.

Why Badge Webinars: Future Creators is now a partner in an organisation called Badge Nation, which emerged out of the Cities of Learning pilot. It now has a new online home – www.badgenation.org  Badge Nation is launching a series of Why Badge Webinars. The first session is for creative and cultural organisations to come together to understand how badging might work in their context.  Badges give arts and cultural organisations the perfect tool for recognising and celebrating creativity and the contributions individuals make to the creative and cultural landscape. Future Creators will be leading the first webinar on Wednesday 23rd  June at 10.30am for 45 minutes, click here to register: https://www.badgenation.org/event/why-badge-creative-cultural-organisations/

East Sussex Arts Partnership grant deadlines have been published up to January 2023.  Please remember that in order to submit your Arts Council Project grant bid for a request for £500 of matched funding from the East Sussex Arts Partnership (ESAP) you need to have finalised and submitted your ACE bid so that you can send us the final version. You also need to ensure that the start date of your project falls after the grants panel meeting (not the deadline for submission) in order to be eligible. Start dates falling before the panel meeting are judged as retrospective and therefore ineligible. Grantium automatically inserts the start date according to your project timeline so keep that in mind.  ESAP don’t like having to turn applications away so we urge you to plan carefully.

FREE BALANCE COURSES FOR CREATIVES: the hub, have 3 FREE courses on offer for artists, creative freelancers / entrepreneurs, all focused on getting more Balance in your life.

Balance Your Mind
The mental health and wellbeing course the hub have developed in partnership with Mindapples, specifically focuses on how to maintain your wellbeing, handle pressure and apply your mind to creative challenges. In addition, you’ll get tools and approaches for building healthy habits and putting yourself at the centre of your business.

Invent Your Future (The Art of Creative Pivoting)
If business as usual isn’t your thing or just not on the cards for you right now, the chances are you’ll be spending a lot of time thinking about what comes next. About what business ‘not as usual’ might look like. How you might change your game, or up it, or maybe switch your focus. The good news is that the Invent Your Future course, can help you with all of the creative pivoting thinking you need to do.

Taking Care of the Business
Forget all you’ve learned about business planning, this is business planning training for a different time – and specifically for creatives.  If you think you are allergic to business planning, or are struggling to manage the ongoing impact of Covid19 on your life and livelihood, this course will help you get inside what ‘good growth’ looks like for you, and arm you with lots of practical resources and insights to start making that happen.  For more information and how to apply for these FREE courses click here.

 

Heritage Compass is open for applications again: Thanks to additional funding from the Heritage Fund, the Heritage Compass programme are looking to welcome an extra 150 organisations to the programme.  Participating organisations will benefit from a range of training, mentoring and peer learning, through which each organisation will develop a clear business plan, a developed income strategy and the tools and knowledge to respond to their specific needs and challenges. Creative United will be working with our network of business advisors to provide 1:1 business mentoring and critical friend support.  Does this sound like something your organisation might require? Join next week’s Q&A session on Friday 18 June, where Shirley Lundstram, Head of Programme at Heritage Compass, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund will be discussing how Heritage Compass can support your organisation.

Managing Organisational Change with the Rebuilding Heritage programme: The last 12 months have been a time of unprecedented uncertainty and volatility for the heritage sector, requiring rapid shifts and new approaches to managing change. This month, Creative United are excited to work with our business advisor Ellen O’Hara to host a webinar as part of the Rebuilding Heritage programme that will help approach this challenge with a dynamic approach.  Managing Organisational Change / Thursday 24th June at 2pm 

 

The Greenhouse Enterprise Programme: Creative United in partnership with BIMM Institute a brand-new business support programme designed to provide training, coaching, and funding for entrepreneurial projects within the music industry by students from underrepresented groups.  Successful students will:

  • Take part in the Creative Business Essentials course, written and provided by Remi Harris, an award-winning trainer and Creative United business advisor.
  • Be matched with another Creative United business advisor for an exclusive one-to-one coaching session.
  • Receive funding from a fund BIMM has created, allocated by a panel of industry experts.

South East Dance are recruiting for a Building Manager for their newly developed building: The Dance Space

 

Perspectives on Practice is a series of People Dancing events for professional development, recovery and rejuvenation for and with dancers, teaching artists and community practitioners. Bookings have just opened for Art at the Heart: Placing dance at the heart of a community project on 24 June, 3-4.30 pm. Jenny Reeves will offer suggestions about delving deeper into local places and spaces; discovering the breadth of possibility on your doorstep; and exploring how place-making can encourage participation and a connection to the arts, and how community participation can be woven into the core of artistic projects.

Still time to apply for Making of Us, a professional development programme for socially engaged artists delivered by The Turnpike through partnerships with Wigan Targeted Youth Services, True Colours CIC and The Together Trust. The Turnpike are looking for a second cohort of artists to join the team and are actively seeking individuals from diverse backgrounds, living and working in Greater Manchester. The programme includes a £2,000 bursary, a training programme to build skills in community arts practice and the opportunity to co-create a collaborative project with participants from a partner organisation. Find all the details here: deadline 18 June.

 

Applications are now invited by the Family Arts Campaign for its Fantastic For Families 2021 Awards. There are three categories this year: Best Family Arts Activity; Best Age-Friendly Outreach; and Audience Impact & Innovation Award. Find all the details here: deadline for entries 21 July.

The National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange (NCACE) facilitates and supports capacity for Knowledge Exchange between higher education (HE) and the arts and cultural sector. If you’re interested in engaging in cross sector collaboration and would like to extend your peer networks for professional development, mutual support and capacity building, check out the Knowledge Impacts Network: Co-Designing KIN event on 23 June, 10 am to 12 noon.

 

 

Beautiful South Awards

This year’s awards see some changes to previous rounds, with:

  • An extended period of opening until the end of August, to enable businesses to reopen and have visitor experiences to report.
  • The addition of a new ‘Resilience and Innovation’ category
  • Judging changes to take into account the last year and new areas of best practice.
  • Reconnection to the national Visit England Awards.

The scheme is now open for entries – South East / Beautiful South covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Bucks and Oxfordshire. See www.beautifulsouthawards.co.uk.

 

Information

Anooshka Rawdon (South Downs National Park) has kindly shared the notes she took at the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) webinar led by ACE, which outlined the fund and enabled people to ask some initial questions about the fund – thank you Anooshka.  The FAQs have also been updated based on questions asked in the session (mainly around match funding). You can find the webinar and the updated FAQs here.

 

Anti-Money Laundering regulations the final countdown to register with HMRC is ticking away and Creative United has shared details of their AML Toolkit for Art Market Participants as part of their recent AMLD5 and the Art Market programme. If you sell art please make sure you have familiarised yourself with the new rules.

 

Inc Arts Unlock is a toolkit for the creative and cultural sector to take measurable action against racism. It gives arts organisations practical steps to take anti-racist action and includes over 100 actions that will help creative workplaces become more inclusive.

 

Join research into culture, creativity and older people’s wellbeing

The University of Oxford are seeking to interview people working in the cultural sector to gather thoughts on the role of the sector in supporting the wellbeing of older people, particularly as we face the long term consequences of the pandemic. See attached flyer for further information.

 

 

Sources of information:

Arts Council E-newsletter: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/our-organisation/sign-our-email-updates

Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy: Subscribe to our mailing list | Cause4

Artswork: Our newsletters – Artswork

Artswork Alliance: https://us11.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=be42aac2260f50b9b3b3e9908&id=fcd9bae289

Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre: Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (pec.ac.uk)

Creative United newsletter: https://www.creativeunited.org.uk/contact/ (scroll to the bottom)

Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance: https://www.culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk/

East Sussex Growth Hub: https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/business/eastsussex/organisations/

External Funding Team/Funding News: Grants and funding – East Sussex County Council

Heritage Lottery Fund: Welcome | The National Lottery Heritage Fund (scroll to the bottom for the sign up option)

Locate East Sussex: Locate East Sussex (list-manage.com)

Rural Services Network: Home Page – Rural Services Network (rsnonline.org.uk) (scroll to the bottom for the sign up option)

Screen South: Film Hub South East – Independent Cinema Office

South East Museum Development Newsletter: https://southeastmuseums.org/

South East Creatives: https://www.southeastcreatives.co.uk/

The Hub: https://thehubuk.com/join

Visit Britain: https://www.visitbritain.org/business-advice/operating-during-covid-19