The Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice scheme is for individual artists to apply for lottery funding to develop a new piece of creative work and a new way of working. You can apply for up to £10,000 towards for e.g., mentoring, time to create new work, research, training or professional development costs.
Whatever it is you want to do, the project you have in mind must be about making a step-change in the kind of work you produce and involve you writing in a different way (e.g. in a different literary form) from your previous work. ACE also know that Covid-19 has had a significant impact and that many artists will need to develop themselves and their work to respond to the new environment.
About the workshop:
If you are not familiar with applying for grant funding, filling out an application form can be a daunting and baffling process. Ruth Harrison and Eva Lewin from Spread the Word will be running a free online workshop for London based writers at 6.30pm – 8pm, Tuesday 26 January 2021. They will talk you through the different questions in the DYCP form to help you think about how you can respond to them.
Once you have attended the workshop you can send your draft application to Spread the Word for feedback in more detail.
What you will need for the workshop:
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A clear idea of what your proposed project is, what you want to achieve and how you are going to go about it;
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Be able to show how your project involves you working in a different literary form from your previous work;
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Please read through all the ACE guidance (https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/DYCP) beforehand, so that you are reasonably sure that what you have in mind is suitable for DYCP funding. (If what you want to do involves engaging audiences or participants, then you should go for a Project Grant instead.)
We strongly recommend you look at the successful applicant case studies on ACE’s website, https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/developing-your-creative-practice/dycp-case-studies.
This workshop will:
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Give you an insight into the purpose of the fund;
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Help you think through your project;
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Take you through all stages of the application process;
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Look at what will make a strong application;
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Provide opportunities for you to ask questions about your own proposal.
Places are limited and offered on a first come first served basis. However, because of the nature of the workshop we are only able to offer spaces to applicants whose ideas are suitable for this funding stream. You will also need to show at least one year’s track record as a writer outside of a formal educational setting. This could include being published or produced (e.g.: by small independent publisher or producer or mainstream publisher/producer) published in magazines, shortlisted for writing competitions or expression of interest from an agent, editor or producer, or working professionally on the poetry circuit.
We anticipate that demand will be high for this workshop so please only book yourself a place if you are committed to attending. The workshop is open to writers of any literary form including screenwriting, playwriting and graphic novels. It is not open to artists working in other media including documentary film making.
Booking your place:
The workshop is FREE but places are limited. To book a place, please email [email protected] with:
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A brief paragraph on your project idea and saying how it is different from your previous work; include details of your track record or attach your writer’s CV;
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A note on if you have applied for DYCP funding before and the outcome of your application;
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Please tell us your London address and postcode.
Please tell us about your access needs. The Zoom workshop will be captioned.
Put DYCP Workshop and your name in the email subject line.
Closing date: 10am, Tuesday 19 January
We will let you know by Wednesday 20 January (5pm) if you have a place on the workshop.
The workshop will take place on Zoom, 6.30pm – 8pm, Tuesday 26 January and is free to attend.
Published 13 January 2020