Ikigai Journal #011
26th August 2020
Welcome to Issue 11,
I have spent the week working through a strange and inspirational world of funding opportunities, initiatives and awards. 11th week running, I have found you the information you need to move your great big ideas into the light.
I am keen to understand how I can support you as you apply for funding and develop your best ideas. By having your say and answering a few questions we can make sure that this newsletter caters to your specific needs.
I hope this week newsletter finds you healthy and coping the best you can with the diverse challenges we are all facing. Try and make use of the opportunities below or in the very least, use the time you save reading these summaries to do something that brings you joy and a deeper sense of purpose.
Solomon.O - Editor
TV Comedy Opportunity for Emerging Talent by Rocliffe
Deadline – 10 September 2020
Funding range – Not Stated
Notable Awardees -
Other People by Matilda Wnek and Ryan O’Sullivan (TV Comedy 2017)
Matilda Wnek and Ryan O’Sullivan have been a writing team since they were teenagers. After a few years writing sketches for the Footlights, they found their comic voice in 2013 with the creation of their award-winning live act Beard. They started writing TV Drama scripts in 2016 and in 2017 sold their first hour-long script to Kudos.
This is a call for UK based writers with a script. Your script could be selected for the BAFTA showcase. All competitions are judged by readers, a script selection panel and an industry jury, selected for their proven expertise in that medium.
Rocliffe in partnership with BAFTA, runs the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Competition & Showcase, an initiative which has connected scores of aspiring British writers and filmmakers with agents, development executives and established industry members. Given that all the writers are selected anonymously this initiative is about the voice of the writer - not their age, experience, race or gender.
Fellini Award by BlueCat
Deadline – 13 September 2020
Funding range – $1,000
If you’re a writer living outside the USA, your script is automatically eligible to win the Fellini Award, given annually to the best international script. BlueCat’s Fellini Award is part of our effort to seek alternative cinematic perspectives and to foster better working relationships with the international filmmaking community.
Federico Fellini was one of the greatest screenwriters and filmmakers in cinematic history. With early beginnings in Italian neorealism, Fellini quickly developed his own style that captured the ethical ambiguity of living in the modern world. The beauty and honest of his writing choices inspire writers to reach beyond what is safe and predictable.
Screenplays 2020 by American Zoetrope
Deadline – 1 September 2020
Funding range – $5,000
Screenplays 2020, the 18th Annual American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition is open to anyone in the UK and worldwide.
The mission of the American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition is to find and promote new and innovative voices in cinema. The competition considers feature-length film scripts as well as pilot scripts for television/streaming services. Every script is read closely by a select handful of professional readers, and Francis Ford Coppola selects a grand prize-winner from among the top ten finalists. The grand prize-winner receives a cash prize, and the scripts of all top ten finalists are sent by Zoetrope to leading production companies and talent agencies for consideration.
The winner and nine honorable-mentions will be considered for representation by select agencies and their scripts will be considered for film option and development by leading production companies.
Outreach and Engagement Fund by The Fledgling Fund
Deadline – 1 October 2020
Funding range – $15,000 to $25,000
Clothes to Die For (Produced by Zara Hayes)
Clothes to Die For is a documentary film about the worst industrial disaster of the 21st century - the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, in which more than 1,100 people died and 2,400 were injured. The eight storey building house factories that were making clothes for many western companies. Through a series of compelling interviews and unseen archive footage, the film gives a voice to those directly affected, and highlights the greed and high-level corruption that led to the tragedy.
Are you working on a media project that can deepen understanding of the effects of climate change on individuals, families and communities? Are you looking for outreach and engagement funding to maximise the impact of your work? If so, they want to hear from you.
They will award 3 to 5 outreach and engagement grants and will give priority to projects that are well positioned to make an impact quickly as climate change is an urgent issue with far-reaching effects that are already happening. While public awareness about climate change has increased, there is a need to do more to highlight the impact of climate change on the health and economic status of already vulnerable populations.
Call for Piano Works by RMN Music
Deadline – 25 October 2020
Funding range – N/A
Notable Awardees
Christina Sandsengen - Guitar
Christina Sandsengen was born in a small town in the middle of Norway. She started to play the piano at the age of seven and gave her first public performance the following year. When she was 15, she started to play the guitar, and fell in love with it. From that moment onwards, she decided to devote herself solely to the guitar. Christina Sandsengen plays a wide range of repertoire, with particular focus on Romantic music.
Following the successful 2018 and 2019 editions, RMN Music decided to launch the 2020 edition of the Call for Piano Works to promote the creation of new works and foster creativity despite the current pandemic.
This Call is open to composers and performers of any age and nationality - that own piano recordings of their works. The works of the winning composers will be featured in the new album “Modern Music for Piano 3” that will be produced by RMN Classical specifically to promote new music and new composers and performers. The album will be distributed on a high-quality edition on numerous platforms and outlets around the world (including Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, and many others) and promoted on various news networks in North America and the UK/EU.
The Mary Otto Composition Prize 2020 by Bristol Choral Society
Deadline – 7 September 2020
Funding range – Up to £1,000
Bristol Choral Society, one of the UK’s leading symphonic choruses, is delighted to announce a composition competition to be adjudicated by Judith Weir and Stephen Jackson. Composers may choose their own text, as long as it is suitable for inclusion in a Christmas programme. This must be non-copyright and in the public domain.
Any composer, regardless of age, gender or nationality, may enter, other than those persons affiliated with the competition. Members of Bristol Choral Society are not eligible to enter.
Small Grants by Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust
Deadline – 3 October 2020
Funding range – £250 - £1,000
Notable Awardees-
Dorcas Casey (2018 Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust)
Dorcas Casey is a Bristol-based artist working from Jamaica Street Studios in Stokes Croft. She studied Sculpture at Winchester School of Art and completed a Masters in Multidisciplinary Printmaking at UWE. She has exhibited her fabric sculptures at Banksy’s Dismaland and performed with her costumes at Glastonbury Festival and Hauser and Wirth Somerset. She was commissioned to work as lead artist for Artichoke’s Processions in 2018 and awarded a Scholarship to study bronze-casting in 2019.
The scheme supports composers in the early stages of their career, who are committed to developing as professional composers and who have a passion for creating high-quality, imaginative new music for vocal ensembles. The scheme is particularly designed to support emerging composers from a broad range of musical backgrounds and genres, and are keen to encourage applications from individuals who are underrepresented in composition for vocal ensembles, including people of colour and disabled people.
Open Call for Sound and Radio Works by Radiophrenia
Deadline – 20 September 2020
Funding range – N/A
Radiophrenia announces their open call for sound and transmission artworks for their upcoming broadcasts in November 2020. The call is open to artists, musicians and producers at any career stage.
Radiophrenia is an artist-run FM radio station broadcasting in Glasgow and online. Their aim is to promote the medium of radio as an art form and encourage experimental approaches to making radio that are not catered for by mainstream stations.
The Phoenix Fund by The Global Fund for Children
Deadline – 21 August 2020
Funding range – Not Stated
The Phoenix Fund aims to put racial justice at the heart of COVID-19 pandemic response. The initiative will support a network of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic charities and groups in England that are working in the heart of their communities, providing essential and emergency services, support, and education tailored to the BAME community.
The Phoenix Fund grant winners will receive flexible, core funding to meet critical needs and continue their organisations’ missions. These grants aim to more effectively support local groups with limited access to resources, which are often restricted to specific interventions. Making a grant flexible allows an organisation to make its own decisions about what is most important for its operations and programmes.
Common Call Fund by Do It Now Now
Deadline – 31 August 2020
Funding range – Between £1,000 to £3,000
Do It Now Now is providing grants to UK based organisations led by people that identify as Black or Mixed with Black. They are specifically looking for organisations that are creating impact in deprived communities and providing services to people that have been adversely affected by the COVID crisis in terms of physical health, mental health and/or financially. It is important that the people in charge of your organisation can demonstrate lived experience of the issue you are providing solutions to. Do It Now Now are very interested in people that have a unique point of view on the problem that they are solving and are tackling the issue from an innovative and impactful perspective, with the funding being best suited to support small organisations that employ no more than five people.
Do It Now Now are really interested in supporting organisations that have not received funding for their work in the past, however it is important to note that they are not prioritising these organisations over funded organisations.
Small Grants by Family Fund
Deadline – N/A
Funding range –Case-by-Case
If you’re raising a disabled or seriously ill child, and need support with essential items the Family Fund can help.
Family Fund is UK’s largest charity providing grants for families with their mission being to provide items and services to all low income families in the UK raising disabled or seriously ill children, that they could not otherwise afford or access, and that help improve their quality of life, realise their rights, and remove some of the barriers they face.
Digital Artist Residency by Playform
Deadline – 2 September 2020
Funding range – $1,000
Qinza Najm
Qinza Naim is a Pakistani-American artist whose interdisciplinary artistic practice explores gendered violence and female subjectivity. Utilizing performance, video, painting, and other mediums, the artist, originally trained as a psychologist, understands herself as a denizen of the world, using artistic means to create empathy and understanding between societies and cultures in order to address the deepest social traumas.
Marco Santini
Marco Santini is an award-winning artist, fashion designer, photographer, and inventor who draws inspirations from inclusion, positivity, and language. In 2018, Santini found his life’s purpose to spread love and positivity as a Conscious Creator.
The Playform Digital Artist Residency seeks to develop emerging digital artists through a unique program that brings together art and technology.
During this unique virtual residency, you’ll get unlimited Playform credits and direct access to a team of AI computer vision experts to collaborate with on cutting-edge creative works. We’ll also partner with you in promoting your work across social media and digital channels.
Corona and Climate Crisis by GC3
Deadline – 8 September 2020
Funding range – Not stated
In an open call, they are inviting artists to submit contributions to the corona and climate crisis for a group exhibition in their gallery space. Disciplines included are object, sculpture, installation, photo, painting, drawing, printmaking, video and sound are all possible. A performative contribution is also welcomed.
Since the Corona crisis still requires restrictions, they will adapt the exhibition organization and the program accordingly. They are therefore planning both an analog and a digital presentation.
Residency Program by TaDa
Deadline – 4 October 2020
Funding range – Not stated
Chun Shao
Chun Shao is a multimedia artist, focusing on multimedia installations, electronic textiles, speculative design and data-driven art. She studied visual arts at the Chinese University of the Arts in Hangzhou, and gained a Masters in Performing Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2019 she graduated in philosophy at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media of the University of Washington. In her latest research she is dealing with interactive textiles and investigating the poetic relation between sensations of touch and feelings.
Alexandra Hopf
Alexandra Hopf students at Düsseldorf's Kunstakademie (Art Academy). In her work, she challenges the construction of art history by reinterpreting the historic avant-garde. She is particularly interested in the Russian avant-garde as an expression of the “new man” and the translation of the geometric and block-like silhouettes of Suprematist painting into the realm of the sculptural. Alexandra weaves together fact and fiction through film, photography and more. She has received a number of bursaries and residencies, and her work has been shown throughout Europe in both solo and group exhibitions.
Do you work in the field of performing arts? Then the innovative Artist in Residency Programme TaDA offers you a unique opportunity to work together with renowned textile companies in Eastern Switzerland. TaDa - Textile and Design Alliance is a cultural promotion programme. Its goal is to promote artistic dialogue with the eastern Swiss textile and design culture and thus strengthen the regional identity. A connection to practice and to the textile companies established in the region is a central component of the programme.
#fundfreelancedance - Part 1 London by The Fund Freelance Dance Initiative
Deadline – 20 September 2020
Funding range – £600
Now seeking dancers and more, The Fund Freelance Dance Initiative aims to provide the freelance Dance community and its ancillary services with an opportunity to receive paid word and will seek to establish an exciting new style of creative engagement.
Seeking freelance industry professionals currently based in the U.K. whose livelihood has been turned upside down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and have seen their usual work opportunities dry up.
Grant Funding by The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation
Deadline – 4 September 2020
Funding range – Up to £10,000
Dash Arts
Dash Arts received funding for the promotion of cross-cultural dialogue and understanding through the encouragement of the arts. The Foundation had previously supported Stages 1 and 2 of the Soviet Series, and granted a further £10,000 for Phase 4; the pre-production of the new works.
The Foundation has been a consistent supporter of the performing arts for many years. The Trustees place particular emphasis on financial support for charities with a record of artistic excellence that require additional funding, not available from public sources or commercial sponsorship, to broaden their repertoire or develop work of potentially outstanding interest which cannot be funded from the usual sources.
I am humbled and grateful be with you in this community of creators, all actively trying to build their boldest visions, always ready to solve problems and deliver urgent works of creativity.
If you need help with you application reach out and Get in touch
- Solomon O