The Mighty Creatives have supported 50% of East Midlands schools to develop their cultural provision and are working with over 900 arts and cultural partners. Our commitment to children and young people (CYP) and their creative voices, their communities, and the cultural sector remains the same as we move towards, and enter, a new exciting era post our role as a Bridge organisation.

Programmes like Arts Award have proved crucial in creating better access to arts and culture – we want to support you now so that you can continue to embed these opportunities across your school and organisations as part of everyday life for the young people you work with.

The Arts Award Futures Fund provides grants of up to £1,500 to organisations currently registered as Arts Award Centres (and their connected trained advisers) to support them to pilot, embed or develop Arts Award and creative activity across the current year and beyond 2023. Creativity is essential in supporting the wellbeing and mental health of both young people and staff and we want to help ensure the continued inclusion of arts and creativity in school and organisations both now and in the future.

It is expected that the young people you work with through this grant will successfully complete their Arts Award through this fund. Meaning completing a successful moderation for Explore, Bronze, Silver or Gold levels and submitting names to Trinity for Discover certification.

Please note: The Arts Award Futures Fund is supported by ACE Bridge funding. TMC’s funding contract with ACE ends in March 2023, by which all monies must be spent. No contract extensions can be provided. It is recommended that all activity, including booking moderations, takes place before 31^st January 2023.

Who is eligible?

We welcome applications from cultural organisations, schools and individuals currently registered as Arts Award Centres and have at least one trained adviser within your setting.

You can be at any point along your Arts Award delivery journey. You must:

• Have at least 1 trained Arts Award Adviser within your setting
• Be an Arts Award Centre
• Be able to complete activity (including booking moderations) by 31^st January 2023
• Attend a mid-point meeting (see date below) and provide TMC with updates along your delivery journey
• Provide us with an end-point report (including completing our collective outcomes tool which helps us monitor equal opportunity data of the beneficiaries) and attend an end-point meeting (see date below)

We welcome joint applications from schools and individual artists/organisations who plan to work together to deliver as part of this funding.

You will be responsible for your own tax and national insurance requirements. You must be aware of appropriate safeguarding training, on and offline and agree by TMC’s Safeguarding Policy.

If successful in your application, you must be able to attend the following meetings with TMC and other successful grant recipients:

• Arts Award Futures Fund Mid-point Meeting: 3^rd November 2022 4.30pm-6.30pm
• Arts Award Futures Fund End-point Meeting: 2^nd February 2023 4.30pm-6.30pm

How much can you apply for?

Cultural organisations, schools and individuals can apply for up to £1,500. Value for money will be considered when assessing applications. We will also consider the level of planned delivery, amount of young people involved, requirements of the young people involved and the individual plan of each setting to develop and move forward with Arts Award during the current challenging climate and beyond 2023.

You must provide:

• a clear budget for the activity
• a timetable for delivery
• a clear plan of how you will deliver the activity, including how you might share work
• a clear description of how your activity will support strategies for embedded delivery across the next year and beyond 2023
• an evaluation plan outlining how you will monitor the impact of the work undertaken

What can I use the grant for?

The grant can be spent on activities including:

• Bespoke resource development (e.g. bespoke logbooks for your setting)
• Arts Award Advisor training for additional staff at any level
• Time and expenses to support partnership building
• Staff time for development
• Time to support development of your Arts Award offer against current and changing priorities
• Support for an artist or other specialist professional to come in and support development of your delivery
• Additional adviser/staff time not already covered in school
• Materials and resources
• Discover certificate costs and moderation costs at Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold levels
• Any other activity that supports the development of your Arts Award offer that you are able to demonstrate how it will support your future delivery from 2023 onwards.

You will be expected to set your own deadline for completion of your supported activity and will be asked to provide an end-point evaluation. All activity must be completed by 31^st January 2022.

More information on certification and moderation costs can be found on the Arts Award website.

How do I apply?

Please complete our online application form by clicking the button below.

The deadline for applications is Monday 25^th July 5pm.

If you have any questions about this offer or wish to speak to someone within the Arts Award team for any further information, you can reach us on 0116 2616 834 or artsaward@themightycreatives.com

If you are finding it difficult to apply via our application form online, please get in contact via the email above for alternative ways of applying.