Ikigai Social #021
6th November 2020
Thanks for being patient as this weeks newsletter comes to you a little later in the week than intended. Like everyone in the UK, we are dealing with the adjustments of the new lockdown the best we can.
After 21 Newsletters we are pleased to have grown to a community of 400 subscribers!
I am grateful to have taken an idea like this from conversations with creative friends that were struggling to source funding opportunities to a newsletter that has sourced over £8M in funding so far.
Our main goal is to help you secure the funding for your passion projects so please reach out if there is anyway you think we could help you more.
Solomon.O - Editor
Development Fund by Catapult Film Fund
Deadline – Rolling Basis
Funding range – Up to £15,500
Alis by Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf
How do you build a “new life” when you are born without opportunities? Can you change despair and project another destiny? Through a creative act, eight teenage girls who lived on the streets give life to a fictional classmate. As reality prevails and fiction fades, the innocent game becomes a descent into hell where their luminous faces guide us to the depths of the dark world they once inhabited. How to imagine a different life, break the cycle of violence and embrace the future?
Catapult gives early support to propel projects forward that hold the promise of a story that should be uniquely told in film. They provide development funding to documentary filmmakers who have a strong story to tell, have secured access, and are ready to create a fundraising piece to help unlock critical production funding. They enable filmmakers to develop their projects to the next level, at the early stage when funding is hard to find. They support powerful and moving storytelling, by filmmakers with a strong voice across a broad spectrum of subject matter.
Catapult is not tied to any specific social issue agenda. They support and encourage filmmakers to tell a full range of stories on film in whatever form fits the film and artist. As a result, their Catapult supported films can range widely in style and scope.
The Distribution and Exhibition Fund by Screen Scotland
Deadline – Rolling Basis
Funding range – Up to £15,000
The Distribution and Exhibition Fund aims to support wider distribution of completed Scottish films across Scotland and internationally, and especially to increase access to Scottish films for as wide and diverse an audience as possible within Scotland. They will provide funding to distributors or film production companies to extend and support the theatrical release of completed Scottish films across Scotland. They also aim to support the international distribution of Scottish films.
Screen Scotland is leading the growth of the sector through increased funding and support for film and television production, an increase in specialist staff and further investment in skills, festivals, audiences and education.
Screen Scotland sits within Creative Scotland and is a partnership with Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Funding Council, with funding from the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. They are funding, developing and growing Scotland’s screen sector by boosting production by increasing funding and support to grow the number and diversity of film and TV productions from Scotland.
Filmmaking Grants by Filmmakers Without Borders
Deadline – 1 January 2021
Funding range – Up to £3,900
Notable Awardees -
Alyssa McDonald
Alyssa McDonald is a multimedia journalist who has worked in newsrooms all around the world - from the coast of West Africa to the bustling streets of India to the vast Canadian prairies.
Jayce Hill
‘Jayce is an anthropologist, archaeologist, and filmmaker who has taught visual media and video production for the National Park Service’s Southeast Archaeological Center.
Filmmakers Without Borders supports independent filmmakers around the world via grants and other funding initiatives. Supported projects include narrative films, documentary films, and new media projects that align with themes of social justice, empowerment, and cultural exchange.
MU Coronavirus Hardship Fund by Musicians Union
Deadline – Ongoing Basis
Funding range – £200
In response to the widespread cancellation of work that has hit our profession as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, they have taken the decision to set up a £1M hardship fund that members with genuine and pressing hardship can apply to. It must be emphasised that this is a hardship fund and not a fee replacement fund. The fund will not stretch very far if members who have lost bookings but are not in dire need of financial help all apply.
Covid-19 Fund by Sweet Relief
Deadline – Rolling Basis
Funding range – Case-By-Case
The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.
MAS Records - Artist Development Programme by River Studios
Deadline – Rolling Basis
Funding range – N/A
MAS Records are funded by the Government Education budget to encourage young people aged 16-30 to get involved in developing their music careers.
Deadline – 31 December 2020
Funding range – Up to £9,000
The competition searches new talents in the performing arts to elevate their skills and to implement their career with important experiences: Scholarships, auditions, world concert tours, professional recordings, workshops and official certificates.
Henry Duncan Micro Grants by Corra Foundation
Deadline – 31 December 2020
Funding range – Up to £1,000
The theme for Henry Duncan Grants in 2020 is enabling families to cope with the impacts of poverty. Standard grant applications relating to the 2020 theme are now closed but charities with an annual income of less than £50,000 can still apply for a micro grant up until the end of December.
Community Asset Fund by Sport England
Deadline – Ongoing Basis
Funding range –£10,001 - £50,000
The Return to Play: Community Asset Fund is for new applications focused solely on helping support clubs and community groups through the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic to return to play. It’s designed to provide capital funding to help local sports clubs and organisations to adapt and open important places and spaces so people within their community can return to play and physical activity, safely. The focus is on responding to the immediate challenges of sports and physical activity returning to play this autumn.
Screwfix Funding by The Screwfix Foundation
Deadline – N/A
Funding range – Up to £5,000
The Screwfix Foundation is a registered charity set up in 2013. They have a clear purpose of raising funds to support projects that will fix, repair, maintain and improve properties and community facilities for those in need throughout the UK. They raise funds throughout the year to support causes that will change people’s lives. The Foundation works with both national and local charities, donating much needed funds to help all sorts of projects, from repairing buildings and improving facilities in deprived areas, to decorating the homes of people living with sickness and disabilities.
Visual Arts Grants by The Elmgrant Trust
Deadline –Rolling Basis
Funding range – Up to £450
Dartington Hall Trust
“I am writing to report on a really wonderful 70th anniversary year for the Dartington International Summer School & Festival and tell you about how the generous support from the Elmgrant Trust made a difference in 2018.”
The Elmgrant Trust is a charity which makes grants for charitable purposes to individuals living in the South West of England and to organisations and groups with projects in the South West. By doing so, it aims to improve the quality of local life and welfare through education, the arts and social sciences. While the Elmgrant Trust assesses each application on its individual merits, they receive many applications a year, so they choose to prioritise geographically and certain types of work.
Open Call by Scopio
Deadline – 31 December 2020
Funding range – Not Stated
Notable Awardees-
Beatrice Galilee
Beatrice Galilee is a curator, critic and cultural consultant specialising in the field of contemporary architecture and design.
The challenge is to create a visual narrative that is grounded on your daily life experience in this difficult moment of isolation because of the Covid-19 crisis.
Digital Collaboration Fund by The British Council
Deadline – 19 November 2020
Funding range – Up to £50,000
Grants are now available to support art organisations to collaborate internationally. They are offering grants of up to £50,000 to organisations in the UK and selected countries overseas to collaborate digitally on international projects.
Digital Residency by Axis
Deadline – 16 November 2020
Funding range – £1,500
The Axis Digital Residency seeks to support artists who require additional resources and support to develop and disseminate new work over a three-month period. They are looking for artists working in any medium, not just digital, but who are interested in sharing their residency experiences with their online community, and who are ready to shine a critical spotlight onto their work and practice.
Project Grants by National Lottery | Arts Council
Deadline - Open and Rolling (1 application at a time)
Funding Range £1,000 - £100,000
National Lottery Project Grants supports thousands of individual artists, community and cultural organisations. Until April 2021, the fund will focus on the needs of smaller independent organisations and individual practitioners
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2021 Callout by Arab Arts Festival
Deadline – 4 December 2020
Funding range – N/A
Notable Awardees -
No Words by Mariam Al-Dhubhani
Mariam Al-Dhubhani is a Yemeni-Russian award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and curator. Al-Dhubhani is currently doing an MA in Museum and Gallery Practice at UCL Qatar. She first pursued her passion for media during the 2011 Arab uprisings and co-founded her first media production. Al-Dhubhani’s films have been screened globally in festivals such as Carthage, Interfilm, and Oaxaca. She also utilizes Virtual Reality in highlighting stories from Yemen.
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) is inviting proposals for their 2021 festival. The festival will be held 16-25 July 2021. The devastating impact of climate change is being felt across the world. Global warming is fueling extreme weather events, rising sea levels, intense heat, natural disasters, environmental degradation, food and water insecurity, mass migration, and conflict.
Multi Story Arts Festival Commission by 2Faced Dance
Deadline – 12 November 2020
Funding range – £3,800
As part of their commitment to support the next generation of creative talent 2Faced Dance are offering one young maker or collective of young makers the opportunity to create a new work as part of the company’s Spring 21 season.
L20 Artist Attachment Programme by The Lyceum
Deadline – 29 November 2020
Funding range – £1,000
The programme, where 20 creative people from Edinburgh and the surrounding areas are invited to join The Lyceum for a year, was announced at the beginning of the year but implementation was delayed as the Covid-19 restricted forced The Lyceum to rethink its creative programme.
The programme is for all kinds of theatre artists including, but not limited to, writers, directors, choreographers, composers, creative producers, designers, digital creatives, and more. Core activities offered to the L20 will include shadowing placement on a Lyceum project, for which they will receive a £1,000 bursary; quarterly Saturday workshops that focus on bespoke skills development; one-to-one advice and support sessions with Artistic Director, Associate Directors, Producer, Literary Associate; invitation to join Lyceum readings, workshops, and rehearsals where appropriate opportunity for access to Lyceum staff able to advice on specific areas, such as press, communication, marketing, fundraising, production and creative learning.
The L20 programme aims to put the artists at the heart of the programme, with additional bespoke opportunities crafted and offered as and when possibility arises.
Chorts 2020 by Comedy Crowd
Deadline – 4 December 2020
Funding range – £500
Chorts! are comedy sketches that engage an audience, introducing an exciting new comedy character or concept. The Comedy Crowd is looking for script submissions rather than finished videos, and have extended the maximum length from 2 to 3 whole minutes! Shortlisted scripts will be reviewed by their exciting guest sketch script editors, before being developed into videos for the live screening and industry judging. There are 2 types of Chort entries: Writers who want to produce and perform the Chort themselves or writers who don't want to perform.
If you want to perform the Chort yourself, once the shortlist is announced you will have 4 weeks to produce the video. Alongside your script they will also ask for links to your previous performed sketches with the initial submission. If you are only looking to writer the sketch but not perform it, they will arrange production of the video with your input if it is shortlisted.
I remain humbled and grateful to be part of a community of creators actively trying to build their boldest visions, always ready to solve problems and deliver urgent works of creativity. If you ever want to talk through your project or need any further assistance don't hesitate to get in touch
- Solomon O