Grants database

The National Centre for Creative Health aim to advance good practice and research, inform policy and promote collaboration, helping foster the conditions for creative health to be integral to health and social care and wider systems. This grant supports them to build on the findings from their Creative Health Review and the UK Research and Innovation partnership research programme: Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities, through working with Creative Health Associates and Integrated Care Systems across England to further advocate for and embed creative health at systems level.

The Ubele Initiative (Ubele) derives its name from the Swahili word meaning ​‘The Future’. They are an African Diaspora-led intergenerational social enterprise founded in 2014, with the purpose of helping to build more sustainable communities across the UK. Ubele supports a wide range of Black and minoritised communities, community-based organisations and groups with their community assets (people and physical spaces), through social action, community enterprise development and next-generation leadership initiatives. This grant supported Ubele to bring together a varied group of Black, African diaspora leaders from across the country to participate in the 2023 Year of Return and Connections a collaborative initiative between multiple organizations which took place in Nairobi in July 2023.

My Life My Say (MLMS) is a youth-led, non-partisan movement on a mission to change the culture of democracy and get every single young person voting. This grant supports Next Gen – the UK’s leading youth summit. Funding will enable MLMS to facilitate young people’s active participation in the conference, fostering a platform for the next generation to play an instrumental role in shaping the future of Britain.

The Spark Arts for Children are an arts organisation helping children immerse themselves in the arts in a variety of places and spaces. They offer children opportunities to discover their skills, passions and potential – both as an audience or participants This grant supports The Spark Arts for Children to partner with eight primary schools in Leicester, putting theatre-making at the centre of children’s voice in the classroom, through a cross-curricular programme with links into PSHE learning.

Imagineer create live events, in particular theatre and outdoor performance, education programmes, special commissions and touring work. Their projects bring together creative thinkers and innovators from the arts sector with engineers, architects, educationalists, special effects artists and designers. This grant supports the Teach-Make programme, a curriculum development project for primary school teachers which places art-making at the centre of teaching and learning. This project will bring a new iteration of Teach-Make to eight primary schools in the Warwickshire boroughs of Nuneaton and Bedworth.

Stiltskin Creative Arts and Theatre, is leading Tiny Voices, Giant Ideas, a collaborative project with creative partners Exim Dance and Above Bounds Theatre. The initiative explores imaginative, child-driven, play-based practices co-created by artists and Early Years practitioners. The work aims to provide rich, arts-based experiences for three and four-year-olds, supporting self-expression, confidence, resilience, and mental health. The project aims to gain insights into embedding an artist as a member of the academic team in three Plymouth early years settings.

Music in the Round is a national promoter of chamber music, with a year-round programme of events for people of all ages. This grant supports the WeCompose project, enabling pupils at Key Stage 3 and 4 to access to the music curriculum and make progress in their learning by developing composition skills, creativity, and connections to live music. The project will also provide professional development support to music teachers to strengthen their practice.

Fresh Arts provide arts education for children of all ages. They are committed to widening participation in the arts. The Bounce Drama Project boosts the knowledge and skills relating to mental health and well being of children in Years 3 and 4, through drama-based practice. In the second phase of development, Fresh Arts will be developing the model, through co-construction with a group of London primary schools, to support children in all primary school year groups.

Chuckle Productions use Arts-based learning approaches to encourage a child’s natural desire to be creative and curious. This grant will enable Chuckle Productions to support young children in Staffordshire schools and nurseries to develop key skills by participating in music, movement and visual arts-based activities. They will also work in partnership with teachers, teaching assistants and nursery staff to use an arts-based approach to support core areas of child development, ensuring that children are ready to start school.

Bruiser Theatre Company is a physical theatre company that nurtures new professionals and reaches out to communities in Northern Ireland. This grant supports their Vital Connect project to extend and develop a blended approach to supporting drama education, working with 12 secondary schools. Bruiser Theatre Company will deliver a consistent free provision of workshops, continuing professional development and mentorship to enable students and teachers to develop skills, knowledge and confidence.

ARCADE supports creativity in all its forms, working with local communities and supporting local artists to ensure the Scarborough region has a thriving creative scene. This grant supports ARCADE to develop a locally-rooted partnership in Scarborough, encompassing artists and museum educators from ARCADE, Scarborough Museums and Galleries, Flash Company Arts and KIT Theatre. Using an arts-based approach drawing on immersive drama and storytelling, the partnership would work with a small group of Scarborough primary schools, a PRU and an SEND specialist school, to support learning across the curriculum.

Talawa is a Black British theatre company that champions Black excellence in theatre. This grant will support Talawa’s new Early Years programme addressing a significant gap in provisions for quality, accessible and affordable theatre for babies aged 6–18 months. Funding will support staffing, artist/​facilitator fees, early years training for artists, alongside the development of, and subsequent tour, of a new co-created show for babies, as part of a wider early years program. This programme will be delivered in partnership with children’s theatre experts Unicorn Theatre.