Welcome to the latest edition that covers:
- our upcoming training event
- past workshops
- exciting projects taking place across Shropshire's cultural sector
- funding available from a range of external funders.
If you have something you would like to share in future newsletters such as a job opportunity, funding, or a success story, do let us know by emailing culturalcompact@shropshire.gov.uk
On Thursday 23rd May, we are holding a workshop on environmental sustainability in culture with LovelyLand.
Date: Thursday 23rd May
Time: 10:00 - 1:00
Location: Shropshire Wildlife Trust, 193 Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, SY2 6AH
Price: FREE
This 3 hour climate education workshop will consider the fundamental science behind climate change. Using unique resources the LovelyLand facilitators will guide you through the cause and consequences affecting climate change and provide a nurturing and safe space to be able to explore your own concerns around the climate crisis we all face.
The workshop will also consider the impact that culture can have on the environment. It will look at:
- how culture can be used as a way to promote climate issues
- how it can help develop an appreciation for nature
- the negative impact that cultural events can have on the environment and what we can do to offset this
This is a Climate FRESK workshop run by LovelyLand. This event is run with thanks to funding from Arts Council England.
Book now on Eventbrite using the button below:
 Over the last month, we have held two workshops to support the cultural sector. These workshops were delivered by Community Resource and run with thanks to our funding from Arts Council England.
On Thursday 28th March, we held a workshop with Community Resource on 'Working with Volunteers' at the Qube in Oswestry. The workshop explored all aspects of working with volunteers in your organisation. This included;
- writing a volunteer role description
- writing a volunteer policy
- recruiting volunteers and where to advertise for them
- managing and retaining volunteers effectively
- advice for dealing with different scenarios
This workshop was a really useful insight into positively working with volunteers and provided many with the knowledge and tips needed to work better with volunteers in their organisations.
On Tuesday 16th April, Community Resource joined us at the Mayfair Community Centre in Church Stretton for a workshop on Governance, Policies and Procedures. The workshop covered the types of organisations in the community and charity sector. It considered how these different organisations operate and what groups are required to do in order to become one. Many of the groups attending were already formal organisations but wanted to ensure that they had up-to-date frameworks in place and that they were complying with their legal structure.
This was a great opportunity to hear from those who were set up as different organisations already and how it worked for them. It was interesting to hear about the challenges facing organisations and share best practices.
Overall, the two workshops helped 21 different organisations in Shropshire, giving many new skills or understanding to take away and apply to their own roles and groups. Vibrant Shropshire will continue to provide more workshops like these in the future, working with our partners to target our priorities.
Community Resource offers vital support to the people and communities across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. As well as providing health and wellbeing and financial support, they also offer voluntary and community infrastructure support as the Shropshire Infrastructure Partnership (SIP). They offer free advice, guidance and support to local charitable groups and organisations.
Whether you are thinking of setting up a community group, are a fairly new group or organisation, or have been established for many years, they can support you with the following:
- Advice and guidance
- Training
- Grants and funding promotion
- Volunteer brokerage
Find out more about Community Resource and SIP below:
The application window for the Vibrant Shropshire Grant scheme closed today at 12 noon. This round of the grant scheme has proved extremely popular and we have received a large quantity of applications. These applications will now be reviewed by members of the Vibrant Shropshire Board and decisions will be announced to applicants in mid-May.
Thank you very much to everyone that has applied for the Vibrant Shropshire Grant Scheme.
This funding scheme is made possible with thanks to funding from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK Government's Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus
 This project was funded by the UK Government through the Vibrant Shropshire Grant Scheme as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
ArtShack is based just outside Shrewsbury, and has been offering creative opportunities to people of all ages since 2017. In 2024 It was decided that the time had come to celebrate the achievements of past and present members by having a collaborative exhibition of their work, and to support this project ArtShack received £4625 from the UK Government through the Vibrant Shropshire Grant Scheme, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.’
Meticulously curated by (ex-young curator) Sam Johnson Squire, the exhibition packed the three galleries within the highly renowned Bear Steps, Shrewsbury 4-16th March 2024.
In addition, ArtShack provided a variety of drop-in creative workshops and over 45 live demonstrations from artists and participants.
“What a wonderful experience, batik and gel plate/pad, learnt so much, made me feel so happy , I would love to learn so much more, fantastic hosts, so impressed could do with more here, thank you so much” Sandra
The combination of quality artwork, artist workshops, diversity of participant demonstrations and a variety of prints and cards to purchase led to an influx of positive feedback from visitors, reflecting a very busy and successful exhibition
“I have been gallery manager for almost 12 years, and in this time I have seen few exhibitions that have attracted so many visitors. The variety of work is superb, and all the people involved with ArtShack have have been a pleasure to work with” said Dave Lupine.
“Wonderful inspirational exhibition, I will definitely be visiting ArtShack soon!”
Find out more about ArtShack below
Interested in music, film, theatre, arts and festivals? Do you think you’d like to record or write a review for Voice? Then get in touch!
If you're aged 16 – 25 years and live in Shropshire then come along to one of our FREE weekly sessions where you get to learn from professionals, access events, training and opportunities and develop your own opinion pieces.
Weekly sessions are held on Thursdays at Shrewsbury Colleges Group, English Bridge Campus, SY2 6AA. You don’t have to be a college student, or know about the local arts scene or how to review - just register your interest to attend, turn up at the college reception and meet like-minded people!
To find out more email judy@voicemag.uk
This project is funded by the UK Government through the Vibrant Shropshire: a Cultural Compact Grant Scheme as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
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Change Tracks is a songwriting and production project introducing music technology and popular music composition to children and young people (between 11 and 18 years) in Shropshire.
The workshops take place on:
- Tuesday 28th May
- Wednesday 29th May
- Thursday 30th May
- Friday 31st May
Cost: Free
The first two dates will be held at the SMS centre in Bayston Hill. These sessions will cover lyric writing, the fundamentals of songwriting and pre-production.
The final two dates will be delivered at Telford College’s industry-standard recording studios, where attendees will be introduced to tracking, mixing and mastering - and will complete the workshop with a fully mixed track!
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ChurchCare
The Church of England offers grants for the conservation of their historic churches. This includes the restoration of:
- paintings
- stained glass
- monuments
- decorative metalwork
- textiles
- wooden objects
- clocks
Grant amounts: various
Deadline: various
To read about these grants and find out more, click the button button below:
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The Baring Foundation: Attracting new male participants into creative mental health
programmes
Through its Arts and Mental Health Programme, the Baring Foundation is making available grants of between £20,000 and £50,000 for work seeking to achieve improved or equal representation of men joining mixed-gender creative activities, or for men-only creative projects.
The Baring Foundation has recently published a new report, Creatively Minded Men, which has helped inform their current funding round.
The purpose of the 2024 call is to fund activity to redress the under-representation of male participants in participatory creative activities in the UK for people with mental health problems and to learn what works in this regard.
Grant amounts: £20,000 and £50,000
Deadline: 23rd April 2024
Find out more:
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British Council International Collaborative Arts Projects
The British Council is offering grants for arts and culture organisations across the UK to work in partnership with international organisations from selected countries to support arts projects that help artists to make and develop creative artwork and encourage new international partnerships and innovative ways of collaborating.
In the second round of the International Collaboration Grants Programme, a total of £1 million is available for UK groups working in partnership with one or more organisations from eligible participating countries to deliver arts projects.
Priority will be given to partnerships that show clear benefits to artists and international partners and genuine international collaboration. The Council is particularly keen to work with organisations that they have not previously worked with, especially those based outside Greater London.
Grant amount: between £25,000 and £75,000
Deadline: 30th April 2024
Find out more:
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Postcode Local Trust (West of England)
Back for another year, the Postcode Local Trust is supporting organisations across the West of England with unrestricted funding in 2024.
The funding is for projects that have a clear alignment with one of the Trust's themes for 2024:
- Enabling participation in physical activity
- Enabling participation in the arts
- Preventing or reducing the impact of poverty
- Supporting marginalised groups and tackling inequality
- Improving biodiversity and responding to the climate emergency
- Improving green spaces and increasing access to the outdoors
- Providing support to improve mental health with a focus on organisations that are actively supporting specific mental health issues rather than general mental wellbeing activities.
Grant amounts: dependent on the organisation's not-for-profit legal structure, grants between £500 and £2,500 or between £500 and £25,000
Deadline: the next application opens 27th May and closes on 3rd June, there will be another application window 26th August to 2nd September.
Find out more:
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Theatres Trust: Small Grants Programme supported by the Lindbury Trust
This grants programme funds small projects that make a big impact to a theatre's resilience, sustainability, accessibility or improving the diversity of audiences.
This scheme provides grants of up to £5,000 for essential works to enable not-for-profit theatres across the UK to be viable and thrive in the future.
Eligible projects include small capital works, the installation of key plant and machinery and works which make theatre buildings digital-ready.
Grant amount: up to £5,000
Deadline: 7th June 2024 at 12 noon
Find out more:
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Youth Music NextGen Fund
The Youth Music NextGen Fund offers young creatives grants of up to £2,500 to make their ideas happen.
The Youth Music NextGen Fund is for early-stage musicians and wider music adjacent creatives to invest up to £2,500 in their own projects and make their ideas happen. The fund is especially aimed at those whose lack of finance holds them back from pursuing their goals.
It's open to 18–25-year-olds (and up to 30-year-olds who identify as d/Deaf or Disabled) who live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Grant amount: £2,500
Deadline: 28th June 2024
Find out more:
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The Hitmaker Fund
The Hitmaker Fund offers an opportunity for songwriters and producers working in popular music genres to further develop their careers and writing/production with grants of between £5,000 – £10,000.
Launched in 2017 as a response to the long-term career needs of those working behind the scenes, The Hitmaker Fund (formerly The Writer Producer Fund) was initiated by PRS Foundation with BASCA Trust. The rebranded Hitmaker Fund is now delivered by PRS Foundation.
Applications will be accepted from individuals with a professional track record as:
- Songwriters (behind the scenes creators of new music who do not also perform or produce).
- Producers (those working on production who contribute to the songwriting process and are acknowledged as writers).
Grant amount: £5,000 to £10,000
Deadline: Round 2 opens 29th July 2024 and closes 27th August 2024
Find out more:
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The Radcliffe Trust
The Radcliffe Trust continues his charitable bequest through the support of Music and Heritage & Crafts. Grants are currently open for both.
Music: The Radcliffe Trust supports classical music performance and training, especially chamber music, composition and music education.
Particular interests within music education are music for children and adults with special needs, youth orchestras and projects at secondary and higher levels, including academic research. The Trustees respond to applications and also initiate their own projects.
Heritage & Crafts: The Radcliffe Trust supports the development of the skills, knowledge and experience that underpin the UK's cultural heritage and crafts sectors. This includes support for emerging craftspeople of high quality, craft and conservation projects and training, projects demonstrating creative outcomes by designer-makers, projects with potential for capacity building within the sector, and some special needs projects focusing on the therapeutic benefits of skills development.
Grant amounts: £2,500 - £7,500
Deadline: 31st July 2024 for consideration in December
Find out more:
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Greene King IPA Proud to Pitch In Fund
Grants of up to £4,000 are available for registered charities, community groups, social enterprises, community amateur sports clubs, and other organisations across the UK to deliver grassroots sports activities that positively impact local communities.
Grant amount: up to £4,000
Deadline: 1st November 2024
Find out more:
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Historic Houses Foundation
The Historic Houses Foundation gives grants for the repair and conservation of rural historic buildings and structures in England and Wales, including their gardens, grounds and outbuildings. They also give grants for the restoration and conservation of works of art in historic house collections open to the public.
Grants are made to owners (charities, institutions, local authorities and individuals) who demonstrate a sustainable and long-term commitment to the care, management and public access of the historic country houses in their care.
They aim to make grants for projects which either do not qualify for funding from any of the mainstream sources or have been awarded only partial funding. They will also consider making grants to kick start a project but will expect further funding to be in place within 1 to 2 years.
Grant amounts: The minimum grant amount is £1,000, the maximum is £250,000 though awards of this size are only made in exceptional circumstances. Most grants are less than £50,000.
Deadline: rolling
Find out more:
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National Lottery Heritage Grants
National Lottery Heritage Grants form part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund's new 10-year strategy, Heritage 2033, that aims to invest £3.6 billion across the UK with grants ranging from £10,000 up to £10 million.
The strategy is centred around a simplified framework of four investment principles:
- Saving heritage.
- Protecting the environment.
- Inclusion, access and participation.
- Organisational sustainability.
Grants are available to support projects of up to five years that care for and sustain heritage in the UK. This could include nature and habitats, historic buildings and environments, or cultures, traditions and people’s memories.
Grant amounts: there are two levels of grants available £10,000 to £250,000 or grants from £250,000 to £10 million
Deadline: rolling
Find out more here:
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To read more funding opportunities available, take a look at the VCSA Funding Opportunities Roundup.
Know about an arts or cultural funding opportunity that isn't listed here? Please contact us
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