Covid artist support

During lockdown we’ve been reaching out to artists, some on our Walking Over Coals programme, and in our wider networks, to see if we can lend a hand. When the Emergency Funding support from Arts Council England came out we offered to lend a hand with people writing applications – we only heard back from one. So we spent Easter weekend calling them directly to find out why. Artists were telling us things like ‘others need it more’, ‘I’m OK for now’ and that they’d never applied to ACE and wouldn’t know how. We told them that they did deserve it, that this wasn’t going away so to get the support while it’s there, and that it was a (relatively) simple process. We persuaded 20 artists to apply in the end. We’re pleased to say that 18 of them were successful and are now using the funding to help them develop new work during these strange times, and their financial position is at least a little bit better for the time being. We’re always here for advice and guidance when you need it, just reach out.