Grants database

Centre for Mental Health takes the lead in challenging policies, systems and society, so that everyone can have better mental health. Since their previous strategy development process, the mental health policy landscape has changed considerably. This grant will fund work to refresh their strategy to reflect the changing mental health landscape and place the voices of their members, young people and parents/​carers at the centre.

Northern Ireland Youth Forum is a youth-led voluntary organisation delivering projects across Northern Ireland whilst also promoting youth voice in decision making. This grant will enable a group of four youth organisations with an exisiting digital relationship developed during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet in person and strengthen their networks.

The Play House’s Theatre in Education company will work in partnership with Dr Reza Gholami from Birmingham University and four primary schools to develop a drama-based approach to addressing complex issues of identity, belonging, inclusion and citizenship. They aim to support children, teachers and schools to develop their own ​‘Brummie’ identity and set of ​‘British Values’ which can be shared through drama and storytelling with the wider school community and an early years setting.

Fruitmarket is a free, public contemporary art gallery in Edinburgh. This grant will fund Creative Connections, a programme bringing together eight artists and primary schools on the periphery of the city, to work together on a three year artist residency programme. Inspired by Fruitmarket cross-artform programming, teachers and pupils develop art-making skills, build creative confidence whilst interrogating the ideas and processes behind art.

Skills 4 All is a community organisation providing under-served young people with opportunities to develop their curiosity, creativity and confidence through hands-on digital projects and workshops. This grant will fund Skills 4 All to work with a group of young people from communities which experience racism, from one Oldham secondary school, during a full school year. The project will enable them to capture the stories of their lived experience of the Covid-19 pandemic through three arts-based approaches: video storytelling, creative writing and photography. The project will aim to support and affirm self-worth, celebrate the young people’s identities as young Black and brown people, and empower their peers, friends and community through the telling and honouring of their stories.

Pegasus Opera Company provides opportunities for artists of global majority heritage and promotes opera to culturally diverse and underrepresented communities. This grant supports Pegasus, in partnership with two primary and one secondary school in Bedford, to co-create an alternative approach to the music curriculum; supporting teachers to deliver opportunities to sing, listen, compose and perform, by exploring this country’s musical history through the lens of diversity. The programme aims to support change not only within partner schools but beyond, influencing the wider sector in decolonising the music curriculum.

Northern Ballet is a major national professional touring dance company based in Leeds. Their repertoire of theatrical dance productions emphasises both storytelling as well as classical ballet. Their dance education work includes advanced training, intensive workshops, and weekly open access classes for children and adults. This grant will allow Northern Ballet to build on their existing schools work targeting children and young people experiencing systemic inequality; for this project they plan to target children and young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties in three specialist settings in Yorkshire.

Cumbria Development Education Centre is partnering with The Laal Collective and 10 Cumbrian west coast primary schools to explore global citizenship through a range of immersive and child-led arts-based approaches. The project will explore ideas about how, why and where people migrate and will develop students’ collaboration, empathy, resilience and creativity skills, as well as supporting teachers to embed the arts-based approaches in their pedagogy and curriculum.

The British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) develops, sustains and expands innovative ceramics practice and improves lives by delivering an engaging year-round programme of artists’ commissions, education and community projects which feed into a festival of contemporary ceramics that takes place in Stoke-on-Trent. This grant funds BCB to work with Year 7 students from two Stoke-on-Trent secondary schools to develop their skills in working collaboratively with their peers to make and discuss art and creative concepts, using clay as an agent for learning, wellbeing and empowerment.

Birmingham Open Media (BOM) is a not-for-profit gallery and collaborative workspace for art, technology and science based in Birmingham. Working in three Birmingham primary schools and one secondary, BOM will use a digital arts approach to explore anti-racist pedagogy, diversify the curriculum and reduce intersectional barriers to Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics learning.

Stanley Arts is a radically inclusive arts and performance venue seeking to foreground under-represented voices, providing artists of colour and LGBTQ+ creatives with a platform to reach out to audiences across South London and beyond. Stanley Arts is one of a number of partners involved in the delivery of Croydon Borough of Culture 2023 programme. This grant will contribute to Arcadia, a youth-led festival themed around the climate emergency; the development of youth training and leadership offers at Stanley Arts aligned to the year of culture; and to support the Cultural Steering Group and associated groups to develop suitable infrastructure to enable continuing joined-up sector leadership to support legacy outcomes.

Something To Aim For (STAF) is a creative structure support organisation committed to bringing about change by authentically reflecting marginalised and under-represented artists and people in mainstream UK culture. This grant provides core funding to allow STAF to safeguard cultural access and participation among the doubly disadvantaged marginalised/under-represented artists and communities who are at risk of drop out due to Covid-19 and the current cost of living/​energy crises.