Grants database

OpenUp Music’s mission is to make orchestras accessible to young disabled musicians in the UK. They help special schools set up accessible orchestras and lead the National Open Youth Orchestra (NOYO), the world’s first disabled-led national youth orchestra. This grant supports OpenUp to continue leading NOYO and work with consortium partners to expand provision, deliver their first performances and improve NOYO’s support for members.

Northern Heartlands is a new independent charity which builds on the Great Place Scheme in County Durham. They work with communities in rural and post-industrial County Durham using arts, culture and creativity to build confidence and bring about change. This grant supports Northern Heartlands to build on the work of the Great Place Scheme through a programme of activity in Dene Valley. They will also test a place-based socially engaged approach in another rural community in south-west County Durham.

NoFit State is the UK’s leading large-scale contemporary circus company, producing professional touring productions and a wide variety of community, training, and education projects for people of all ages. This grant supports NoFit State’s co-creation work with local communities in Cardiff and South Wales in order to bring community voice and leadership into the organisation. Learning will then be shared through the organisation’s sector support work.

Museum of Colour (MoC) is a heritage and creativity social enterprise. It is building a digital museum to explore the contribution made by People of Colour to the nation’s film, television and art, through a series of digital collections and responses from 1766 to present. This grant supports a partnership between MoC and The Bodleian Library in Oxford. MoC will curate an exhibition of contentious objects linked to racial and cultural injustice and colonialism alongside academics, diverse local communities and artists. The work will aim to reframe the narrative and encourage change in the way heritage is interpreted and presented.

Mortal Fools is a creative learning company and the only organisation in the North East exclusively co-creating theatre and drama with, by and for young people. They specialise in social-change theatre production and drama projects by children and young people co-creating with professional theatre artists. This grant provides core support for organisational staff including four new employed artist roles, to enable Mortal Fools to better target its support and improve its practice and organisational sustainability.

Many Minds is a member-led mental health and performance charity. They run workshops and make high quality contemporary performance with people with lived experiences of mental ill-health. This grant underpins core salaries for the organisation’s expanded support team and project evaluation, in order to sustain growth and meet growing demand for activities.

International Curators Forum (ICF) publicly promotes the work of cultural practitioners by developing artistic and curatorial practice and discourse about contemporary visual art. They focus on the social impact of the visual arts across issues and borders by creating various avenues to empower diverse communities. This grant supports ICF to shift to digital working and host a 12-month Diasporic Curatorial Animateur fellowship for an emerging curator to animate and activate its archive. This work will be supported by new freelance posts to increase digital capacity and implement integrated digital, marketing and audience development strategies.

Create Equity devise, design and deliver projects and research on the arts and creative industries in order to address market failures in grant funding, impact capital and venture capital. Through the pilot Create Equity Fund (CEF), they aim to redress the imbalance in arts funding by supporting a new generation of Black, Asian and minoritised artists and creative entrepreneurs. This grant supports the further development of the CEF’s vision, leadership, and fundraising ready for official launch.

Company Three is a theatre company that aims to be a force for change for teenagers. Led by 75 members aged 11–19, they develop their practice through local relationships and share practice globally. From their base in Islington, North London, they make transformative theatre through long-term, intensive collaboration between young people and professional theatre-makers. This grant helps to strengthen creative and pastoral support within the organisation’s core programme through two part-time Associate Directors who will deliver the programme of theatre making workshops to realise full productions of plays.

The Birmingham Organising Committee for the 2022 Commonwealth Games will deliver a cultural programme as part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. This grant supports three commissions by LGBTQI+ artists as part of the programme. As part of the six-month cultural festival, the commissions will aim to address structural inequality for the city’s LGBTQI+ community through widened cultural access and participation, and explore the complex history of the Commonwealth and LGBTQI+ rights.

The Asylum Reform Initiative (ARI) is an alliance of six national organisations set up to work for long-term, deep change in Britain’s approach on asylum-seekers and refugees. This grant provides additional support to ARI to deliver on their campaign strategy and plan, enable a broader coalition including those with lived experience, and provide core campaign assets and resources to facilitate grassroots engagement.

Women Connect First support Black, Asian and minoritised women and communities experiencing disadvantage in South Wales to help them realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to Welsh society. This grant provides core support to Women Connect First to strengthen their services and support offer and respond to policy and influencing opportunities arising as a result of the inequalities facing minoritised women highlighted by the pandemic.