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/or 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 a clear development opportunity. 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.
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 on Tuesday 15 June 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 20 minute phone feedback.
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 is a clear development opportunity for your creative practice and/or professional profile and networks and partnerships;
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Please read through all the ACE DYCP guidance 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, 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 request 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.
Applying For Your Place
The workshop is FREE but places are limited. To request a place, please email [email protected] with:
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a brief paragraph (250 words) on your project idea and saying how it is a significant development or shift from your previous work. Add details of your track record (60 words) or attach your writer’s CV;
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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 and the caption text made available to participants afterwards.
Put DYCP Workshop and your name in the email subject line.
Closing date: Tuesday 1 June 10 a.m. We will email you either way by the evening of June 8 to confirm if you have a place.
Date: Tuesday 15 June 2021
Time: 6.30-8.00pm
Cost: FREE
Location: online, via zoom
Please contact us to discuss your access requirements.
About the workshop hosts
Ruth Harrison
Ruth Harrison joined Spread the Word in 2015. Her working life has been in the field of the arts and particularly in literature. She has been Director of Apples and Snakes, a literature development officer and programme manager at The Reading Agency. She is passionate about not only widening people’s engagement with writers and writing but also in developing writing talent. Widening participation and engagement alongside developing and building awareness of new voices has been core to her work.
Ruth has previously been a trustee of Little Green Pig – a charity working to inspire children and young people to get creative with writing, sits on the steering committee for The Literary Platform’s Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and is part of the team developing EmpathyLab – a start-up using words and stories to build young people’s empathy skills.
At Spread the Word, Ruth is responsible for leading the company artistically and strategically and working with our highly skilled and dedicated team to make a difference to and for writers and their audiences in London. She has supported many writers and organisations to successfully obtain funding.
Eva Lewin
Eva Lewin is Writer Development Manager at Spread the Word where she leads on the one-to-one support for writers, through feedback surgeries and professional development coaching.
Eva commissioned the Writing the Future research (published in 2015) into Black and Asian writers and publishers in the UK marketplace. She continues to work on the strategy to take forward the diversity agenda, including Spread the Word’s consultancy on WriteNow with Penguin Random House.
Her twenty years’ experience in the literature sector includes curating creative writing programmes, co-directing the Hackney literature festival, running writers’ residencies and a shop-floor library at Ford’s car factory in Dagenham. Eva is an RD1st accredited coach (ILM Level 7 equivalent). She has supported many writers and organisations to obtain funding.
Published 13 May 2021