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Arts Council England
project grants update
Arts Council England have confirmed they are changing project grants to make it more straightforward to apply which is brilliant news. The two main changes are:
1. a simpler application form for under 30K applications (questions in plain English rather than responding to the Let’s Create outcomes)
2. more space to describe your project in your own words
More info from ACE is available here.
The new guidance is coming in September with applications in the new format from November 23.
I knew this was coming at some point and was ready to update everything but I am now on adoption leave until Jan 2024. My priority is being a parent and I don't want to pressure myself into trying to redo all of my training in the first couple of months of building our new family.
I have therefore made the decision (which is difficult as someone who's lived and breathed project grants for several years*) that I won't be updating anything until Jan 2024. I'll take my old resources down in November to save confusion. My current training and resources have been accessed by over 4,000 people so I know they're needed but I only created them because the current application system was causing so much stress. The new application format has been designed to be more accessible so fingers crossed!
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I also spoke to the legends at The Uncultured who said they'll be updating their Arts Council templates etc on this page when the time comes. And the brilliant Jessica Cheetham will likely be doing some training or support so you can get on her mailing list here.
Wishing you all the luck and love as you venture into the brave new world of updated project grants. I'll be with you in spirit and catch you on the flipside in Jan 24.
Thanks!
Christina
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*This was a whole internal battle! The world’s expectation is of your value being based on continual output and productivity and I have an added layer of being a massive perfectionist and wannabe teacher’s pet. I tried to work out if I could cram redoing everything into evenings but if I was doing consultancy with you and you were having this dilemma I’d say absolutely not! And would support you prioritising your life outside of work. So I’m trying to model that.
