Fringe Academy: Grants for the Arts Workshop

Grants for the Arts is an evidence based application for public funding. The success of your application relies solely on the information you provide. It cannot rely on website links or assumption of prior knowledge of you or your work.

If you have a large project proposal, the best way to go about funding is the break it up into smaller under £15k funding applications rather than one big over £15k proposal. For example one for research and development, one for the initial performance and one for touring.

Key takeaways from Grants for the Arts Fringe Academy:

• Confirm all partnerships, funding, venues and performers and attach letters of support
• Crowdfund and pursue other grants first – they help build your case
• Partner with National Portfolio Organisations when possible. It is within their requirements to support other work
• Use Rachel Dobbs’ structure for working through your application
• The character counts are tight. Prepare your application offline first, and strip away hidden formatting characters before pasting into the online form
• Brighton has three of the most deprived wards in the country, working with audiences, venues and artists in these wards will make your application more competitive
• There are a lot of artists in Brighton, which does make applications extremely competitive as funding is limited in each area
• Relate your artistic outcomes to the Arts Council’s strategic goals

Keep in mind that The Arts Council award public money, so although the application process may seem ruthless, it is in place to ensure valid and purposeful spending. But don’t be too put off, they exist to fund projects of high artistic quality and audience engagement. So if this sounds like you, then start building that application!