News from: Creative Lives
Taking part in creative activity, especially with other people, boosts your wellbeing and makes you feel more connected to the place you live. Creative Lives is a national charity working with Reading Borough Council to support local opportunities for creativity, and they are offering grants to help you make this happen.
Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Creative Lives are inviting applications for grant awards of either £500 or £1,000 to fund opportunities for everyone to get involved in creative activities.
-Do you have a creative skill that you’d like to share with others?
-Are you part of a group that would like to do something creative?
-Do you run a local business or venue that could host a creative activity?
Applications opened on 11 December 2023 and you’ll need to apply by 31 January 2024. There are 3 different funds available: Boost, Spaces, and Launch.
Boost Funding | £500 – For: groups (e.g. community groups, art groups, etc.)
Does your community or cultural group have an idea for how to boost creativity in your neighbourhood? Perhaps you’d like to invite someone to teach you new creative skills or buy a new piece of equipment that would let you offer a new activity. Maybe there are people in your local community that don’t have a chance to be creative and you’d like to offer something specifically for them.
Spaces Funding | £500 – For: venues (e.g. shops, cafés, pubs, community halls, salons – anywhere open to the public)
Do you have a space that could be used for a creative activity? Could offering something creative bring new people through your doors? Do people have to wait when they visit you – and could a creative activity make that wait more enjoyable? Could you welcome an artist to use your space for an hour to run an activity for local people? Could you commission an artist to create an activity for people to do whilst they visit you?
Launch Funding | £1,000 – For: groups (e.g. community groups, art groups, etc.)
This is your chance to offer a creative activity to a group of people who do not usually take part in the arts. We recognise that this is harder to do, so we’re offering more funding to support engagement and marketing costs, or to enable you to run more sessions to allow time for word to spread.
Who can apply?
All 3 funds are open to constituted not-for-profit groups or organisations with a bank account in the organisation name.
Boost Funding is also open to un-constituted, informal groups who can provide a not-for-profit organisation that will manage the funds for them (up to £500) or an individual who can demonstrate their connection to the group and is prepared to use their personal bank account (up to £300).
Spaces Funding is also open to businesses with a bank account in the organisation name.
Further information
For more information or to submitted an application online please see the fund page at: https://www.creative-lives.org/creative-seed-funds-reading.