Grants database

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) provides well-evidenced, creative literacy training and support for primary school staff to raise standards in language and literacy. This grant supports CLPE to work with published authors, poets and illustrators and ten London primary schools to deliver Reflecting Realities in the Classroom. The new programme will to support teachers and schools to be more critically reflective and actively engaged in ensuring inclusive and anti-racist practices in literacy teaching and learning, through arts-based approaches.

Heartstone is an arts, cultural, and educational organisation which uses literature, storytelling, visual imagery and dance to present stories that challenge prejudice and stereotypes, reduce isolation and build contact. This grant supports Heartstone to deliver their year-long Story Circles anti-racism education programme with 18 local authorities in Scotland. Pupils aged 9–12 will engage with the themes of racism, intolerance and bigotry through dance, drama, story-telling, literature, creative writing and art.

Fresh Arts Education is a community interest company. They work with primary schools in Brent, Harrow, Barnet, Haringey and Ealing to deliver drama, dance, music and art workshops. This grant supports Fresh Arts Education to work intensively with 12 primary school partners over two years to support the learning, mental health and wellbeing of the children through arts-based learning, as well as training school staff. Using drama, movement, poetry and creative writing, the programme will be delivered through a blend of digital and face-to-face approaches.

Chol Theatre is a charity dedicated to improving the lives of children and young people through high quality arts experiences, cultural education and community theatre projects. This grant supports Chol Theatre to further develop Imaginary Communities, a dramatic and inclusive story-making practice in which every child and teacher is involved in generating ideas, building a shared imaginary world, inhabiting it with characters and launching their own story and learning adventure.

Bow Arts is a leading arts education charity, creative workspace provider and home to the Nunnery Gallery. This grant supports Bow Arts to work in partnership with ten London schools and a group of artist-educators. They will explore how arts-based learning can be central to inclusive and equitable teaching and learning, speaking to inequalities and social justice issues which have been highlighted and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bow Arts will carry out a programme of research through consultation, workshops, co-creation and action-research.

Blue Moose Dance Company aims to empower people to discover new potential, develop expression, gain confidence and celebrate themselves and their community through dance. They work inclusively with and for the benefit of all communities, irrespective of age, gender or background, with a particular emphasis on supporting the development of young people and uniting communities across Lancashire and North Yorkshire. This grant supports the Company to work alongside teachers in six schools to explore how embodied learning approaches can support pupils’ long-term recall and memory skills.

Affinity believes that every care experienced young person deserves equality of opportunity and are committed to providing £1000 worth of world-class cultural and leadership opportunities for every care experienced young person in Rotherham by 2030. This grant supports Affinity to train and support a cohort of teachers in and around Rotherham to develop literacy pedagogy through visual literacy and sequential art, specifically to support the learning of care-experienced children and young people.

Young Identity is a Black, Asian and ethnically diverse-led micro arts charity that engages marginalised young people in writing, performance and theatre across Greater Manchester. The young people they work with are predominately those with lived experience of racism, poverty and/​or identify as LGBTQIA+. This grant supports Young Identity to increase and deepen participation in creative writing and performance for young people experiencing marginalisation in Greater Manchester, through the development of a new writing hub, an increased focus on wellbeing, and investing in evaluation.

The Multi Story Orchestra is a professional orchestra which aims to widen access to high-quality classical music through performances and participatory projects. They perform in car parks around the UK, bringing together hundreds of local young people to perform through partnerships with local arts and community organisations and schools in Peckham, Gloucester and Coventry. This grant supports the implementation of a new staffing structure which will integrate community-led approaches into Multi Story’s work and improve diversity across the organisation’s staff, musicians and participants.

Stepping Out is the UK’s leading mental health theatre company. They produce a wide range of work on mental health themes and are open to people who have used mental health services and their allies. This grant underpins Stepping Out’s core programmes supporting older mental health service users. Stepping Out will develop their ability to deliver hybrid and digital working alongside a live theatre and in-person offer.

Replay Theatre Company develops and tailors theatre experiences to engage and inspire key audiences from their early-years programme, to primary school age children of all abilities and backgrounds, as well as teenagers journeying into adulthood, and children and young people with diverse, complex, and multiple disabilities. This grant supports Replay’s specialist theatre programme ​‘UP!’ through which they will deliver and evaluate new, innovative arts-based activities for neurodiverse and disabled young people.

Ort Gallery is an artist-led exhibition space in Birmingham with the social mission to facilitate dialogue in the community. This grant supports Ort to test equitable approaches to organisational governance and programme design with local Black and Muslim communuity groups through their applied Research and Development project ​‘Warmth’. They will share their resulting methodology publicly in order to ensure transparency and allow others to build on or critique their work as part of their ambition to be a model for exposing inequalities in the arts sector using care and empathy.