Grants database

Oxygen Arts are a creative production agency that specialises in targeting and working with diverse communities. This grant will fund the Black British Ballet project, which aims to fundamentally change the way that ballet is perceived and operates in Britain. The project will create a website, film and a range of activities comprising an event series, training programme, mentoring scheme and book tour to allow the hidden stories of Black dancers in British Ballet who performed at the highest level in discriminative environments to have their stories heard by dancers of colour who may be considering a career in the industry.

Manchester Street Poem (MSP) uses storytelling to challenge prevailing narratives and change public perceptions of homelessness and marginalisation. This grant will contribute to MSP’s existing Project Manager’s salary, increasing their capacity to strengthen and consolidate the organisation. It will also fund overheads and core activities including an annual writing retreat, enabling MSP to test new income streams including a merchandise offer and embed new structures around learning and evaluation.

Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art is the largest contemporary visual arts event in the UK. This grant will support Liverpool Biennial to establish a programme with and for disabled practitioners and audiences to enable them to sustain multi-year work with disabled artists, partners and participants beyond the length of one Biennial, confronting and mitigating the challenges a usual two-year cycle presents.

Kakilang is an East and South East Asian (ESEA) combined-arts charity who bring contemporary Chinese arts to the public and aim to improve East Asian representation in the arts. This funding will allow Kakilang to expand their reach outside London and develop more impactful relationships with East and South East Asian communities in London and across the UK. They will partner with regional theatres, arts and community organisations to work initially with East and South East Asian communities in Cambridge, York and Oxford through workshops, projects and leading into performances.

Jazz re:freshed is one of the UK’s most influential promoters in the British jazz scene. This grant will support an exploratory project to create and test a range of new audience development and engagement approaches for young, Black audiences. This work will support their mission to develop culturally diverse audiences and deliver work in new regions, as well aiming to encourage Black audiences back to live performances following the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on this community.

Heart of Glass delivers socially engaged contemporary arts programmes in St Helens, Merseyside. This grant will support them to deliver ​‘Speculative Futures’, a multi-year programme of socially engaged work co-created with young people. Taking an intersectional approach and working in collaboration with artists and cross-sector partners, the programme will explore themes identified by young people, resulting in enquiry-based commissions, public programming and bespoke sector resources.

Global Grooves are a Carnival arts organisation based in Tameside. This grant will support them in engaging with local communities to shape programming at their venue The Vale. Over two years they will work with communities to explore how the organisation and venue can play a role in supporting their creative ambitions through a series of co-created and co-programmed events across multiple artforms.

City Arts develops arts opportunities in Nottingham and beyond that bring people together, stimulate change and create stronger, healthier communities. This grant will fund core costs, to enable City Arts to deliver an new programme of work to develop and refine their community-led approaches and to embed these organisationally. They aim to co-create an exciting programme of arts activity that is inclusive and relevant. As they continue to pilot and grow their work, they will capture the learning and will develop a toolkit for sharing with networks locally, regionally and nationally.

ARC Stockton is an arts centre that uses arts and cultural activity to support local communities. This grant will support ARC to develop a new model for community-centred arts programming that delivers a range of performances and participatory activities shaped by local communities, particularly those facing barriers created by ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender identity or socio-economic disadvantage.

We Belong is a migrant youth-led organisation campaigning for the rights of young migrants, providing information, support and training. This grant will enable We Belong to expand their operations to Manchester, as well as sustaining their work in London through a mix of direct community work alongside wider advocacy and influencing.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) provides legal support for people who have migrated to the UK and their families, specialising in immigration and asylum law and policy. This grant will support JCWI to encourage direct resistance, through community organising, collective and legal action and persist in driving long-term political change relevant to their core campaigns: migrant workers, undocumented people and climate justice.

The Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) is a national charity that supports volunteer visitors to people in immigration detention, wherever they are held. This grant will support AVID’s ambition to consolidate and strengthen their membership network through expanding to reach more people in detention, prioritising outreach to prisons, responding to volunteer management challenges through wellbeing and recruitment support and developing a handbook to build an open resource for people in detention, their families and visitors. These priorities were developed in consultation with members and people with lived experience, to better meet the needs of people in detention and lead system change.