For me, arts funding is an area that’s shrouded in mystery and confusion. But then I’ve never applied for any, so maybe it’s not such a big deal.
Anyway, two folks who have recently shed some light on the situation are Pete Ashton and Clare Edwards.
Pete went along to the Arts Council yesterday to chat about the Digital Content Development (DCD) fund. In a lovely, comprehensive post he’s found out what the fund’s for, what organisations have been doing wrong in their applications to date and what Anna Douglas and Steve Manthorp (the fund’s administrators) are looking for in applications.
Pete would also like to make it clear he’s available to help organisations (RFO’s only I’m afraid) who are trying to figure out what to use the fund for.
Clare was recently asked for advice on finding funding for a creative project. She was happy to help and thought it’d be useful to put her tips in a blog post, so here are Clare’s tips for finding funding for a creative project.
Actually, the DCD fund is not just for RFOs. The Shift Time festival had a “blogging project” which I was involved with in Shrewsbury and the organisation there was Shropshire Council who, to be the best of my knowledge, are not regularly funded by ACE. DCD is not for individuals but, as far as I know, any organisation or business working in the arts can apply.
Actually, I also thought it was RFOs only. Not sure why I thought that (maybe it was initially?). This document for applicants clarifies things:
DCD Application Guidelines
Yeah, me too. I wonder if that’s changed then – I’m sure that was the big difference between the DCD and Melt (Yorkshire’s version of the same sort of thing – http://www.lovemelt.com/). The Melt awardees are worth a browse.
It’s for RFOs or organisations ideally with an existing relationship with Arts Council West Midlands – eg. they’ve had one or more grants through the Grants for the Arts from them. That’s what I’ve understood from reading their guidelines and talking to Anna and Steve.