Innovate, originate and create – funding available for Winchester’s cultural and creative activities
Winchester City Council’s cultural grant scheme for festivals, major cultural events and arts projects in the Winchester district opened for a second round on 6 October 2016.
The objectives of Winchester’s Cultural strategy are to establish Winchester as a vibrant centre for contemporary and creative enterprise. This grant scheme offers awards of up to £2,000 for projects that meet the aims and aspirations of the strategy.
Cllr Steve Miller, Portfolio Holder for Economy and Estates said:
We are continuing the grants this year due to their popularity in 2015, when many organisations benefited from funding. These included festivals such as Winchester Festival, Winchester Short Film Festival, Worthys Festival 2015, 10 Days: Chalk, Bishop’s Waltham Festival, Hat Fair Fringe and Winchester Wine Festival, as well as SC4M music and the Denmead Proms in the Park events.
These grants complement the arts advisory service we offer and other cultural activities across the city including the Cultural Network events.
Winchester’s Platform 4 received funding earlier this year towards their new project, Invisible Music: Variations on a theme to be completed next year. This Hat Fair 2017 commission, their first major project since the acclaimed Memory Points, is a concert with a difference inspired by the company’s work with a Winchester lip reading group.
Catherine Church of Platform 4 said:
We are very excited to start this new commission, the first major piece we have made inspired by our home town. The cultural grant funding we have been awarded has helped with the development of the Invisible Music project, a work which represents Winchester and its people. We are planning to take it to the Southbank Centre in 2018
Applications for the cultural grant are welcomed from organisations based and active within the Winchester District, and must show evidence of a need for grant funding. Priority will be given to organisations which have not previously received cultural grant funding. For guidelines, full grant criteria and an application form visit www.winchester.gov.uk/community/arts/cultural-grant-scheme/.
The deadline for applications is Friday 18 November 2016.
For an informal chat about your application please contact Carol Hussey, Economy and Arts Support Officer, at businessgrants@winchester.gov.uk.
The Invisible Music preview will be presented at Theatre Royal Winchester on 24 January 2017. More information can be found at www.platform4.org