Grants database

The Polka Children’s Theatre presents visiting shows for 0–12-year-olds alongside creative learning programmes, providing participation opportunities for schools and the community. This grant supports their Write Here Write Now project for Year 3 children in the London Borough of Merton, whose teachers identify that they are not reaching their full potential in literacy and may have low confidence. Drama practitioners from Polka Children’s Theatre work alongside teachers to establish the needs of each group, and deliver bespoke programmes using drama and play-based learning to support creative writing and confidence-building.

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF) celebrates the wide diversity of comics through an annual event and runs a year-round programme addressing social issues through the unique properties of comics. This grant supports LICAF to work with a small group of primary schools and specialist SEND settings in Barrow-in-Furness and North Yorkshire to explore how comics can positively affect children’s enjoyment of and motivation to read, and support their wider literacy development. The project will also work with teachers to support them to integrate comics into teaching and learning across curriculum areas.

HMDT Music support schools in London, Luton, Lancashire and Stoke-on-Trent to embed arts-based practice into the curriculum, with a focus on improving diversity, equity and inclusion. This grant supports HMDT Music to develop teacher continuing professional development, teaching resources and training and mentoring for new arts educators.

QUAD is an international centre for engagement in contemporary art and film based in Derby. Following a successful pilot of the School in Residence programme from 2018–2020, this grant supports QUAD to develop and expand their school partnerships. The organisation matches their team of artist-practitioners to the needs of individual schools, delivering creative workshops in filmmaking, photography, digital art, dance, spoken word, sculpture and painting.

Based in Northern Ireland, Bruiser Theatre Company is a physical theatre company that nurtures new professionals and reaches out to communities. This project will explore and test a blended approach to supporting drama education in Northern Irish secondary schools. This grant supports Bruiser Theatre Company to deliver a consistent free provision of workshops, teacher continuing professional development and mentorship to embed skills throughout the programme.

Unlimited is an arts commissioning body that supports, funds and promotes new work by disabled artists for UK and international audiences. This grant supports Unlimited to maintain and develop the role of Artist Support Manager to deliver improved support to disabled artists and share best practice with the sector. This will include providing peer-to-peer artist sessions, supporting organisations to design and deliver accessible commissioning processes and redesigning evaluation processes.

Theatre Peckham is a Black-led performing arts academy providing education and access to the theatre and film industry for children and young people experiencing disadvantage who live in Southwark. This grant provides core support to strengthen their staff structure, and to enable the Artistic Director to test and develop new approaches, supporting more young people at the grassroots to magnify their talent and impact.

PRS Foundation funds new music across all genres, supporting artist and audience development across the UK. They enable songwriters and composers of all backgrounds to achieve their potential and reach global audiences. This grant supports Power Up – an ambitious, long-term initiative supporting Black music creators and industry professionals, which seeks to address anti-Black racism and racial disparities in the UK music sector.

Oily Cart makes interactive theatre for groups that experience profound barriers to access and participation. This grant will support the organisation to increase access to high-quality interactive theatre for disabled children who experience multiple barriers to the arts. A blended approach of live and ​‘at home’ experiences will embed learnings from the period of lockdown, which opened up opportunities to those previously excluded. Oily Cart will increase under-represented audiences and engagement through creative, family workshops and working groups, designed to ignite a step-change in the disabled community’s agency to participate in, influence and lead theatre.

Heads Together is a community arts organisation based in East Leeds that uses the arts to support communities to reach their potential. This grant provides core support to develop UNION: The Northern School for Creativity and Activism; and to create a community of learning across the north of England involving individuals and organisations who are at all stages of learning around the themes of creativity, activism and co-production.

DIY is a member-led Learning Disability theatre company based in Salford. They create accessible, thought-provoking theatre and creative projects where learning disabled performers, theatre-makers and arts leaders are valued as part of the cultural sector and society. This grant supports DIY to provide a three-year bespoke leadership training programme, creating more development opportunities and career pathways for emerging learning disabled artists. Through the programme DIY will address structural inequalities in the cultural sector, promote the value of lived experience leadership and challenge systemic ableism and limited perceptions of people with learning disabilities.

Beacon Films is a production and training company of 43 disabled, autistic and neurodivergent film-makers based in Newcastle upon Tyne. This grant supports Beacon Films to test, grow and share practical ways to improve inclusion for disabled people in the creative screen industries.