Leeds Inspired Grants Update: March 2020
The Leeds Inspired Grant Scheme has funded nearly 600 projects since we began in 2012. Its goal has always been about artists and residents of all ages coming together to be creative. Over the past few years we have funded artists to make work for lots of different types of places, for community festivals, shopping centres, swimming pools and of course on stages.
The Covid-19 situation is impacting all of our lives and will continue to do so for some time. With venues, shops, schools and workplaces closed, the creative sector is already responding. Artists and organisations are working in different ways, creating different kinds of work and finding new ways of connecting with each other and audiences. So, to facilitate this to continue and to support everyone to continue to access the brilliant art and culture created in this city, we have made a few tweaks to our grant schemes.
We are temporarily suspending our Main Grant Scheme and using the funds from this to boost the Small Grant Scheme. This means we will be able to fund more projects faster. We are increasing both the total award available in the Small Grant Scheme and we are making the deadlines monthly instead of every two months. We are open to applications for work that might take place online or for projects that are offline / analogue / in real life. Please take safety seriously when planning your projects and remember to think about online safety too, not just Covid-19 related safety. Our current plan is to continue this until the end of the year and, as the Covid-19 situation is rapidly changing, we will review it in a few months to make more tweaks if we think they are necessary.
The new grant forms can be found on the Grants page; please use these forms rather than any old ones you have from submitting a previous application. As always, we are happy to talk to you about your project ideas. Please get in touch if you would like to arrange a grant surgery - jane.earnshaw@leeds.gov.uk
It will be over the phone, obvs.