Culture Service - Flexible Fund 2021/22 - Creative Community Partnerships: Collaboration & Exchange Application Form

Overview

City of Edinburgh Council Flexible Fund: Creative Community Partnerships: Collaboration & Exchange - Deadline for applications: Friday 17 September 2021 (23:59 GMT).

We would like to assure all potential applicants that the timeline of the City of Edinburgh Council’s Flexible Fund (Creative Community Partnerships) has not been affected by the current COVID-19 public health situation.

The applications should be submitted, and will be assessed, as per the published schedule. This will ensure the Fund is allocated as planned, and will assist the successful applicants – artists and arts-based practitioners and partnering organisations – to resource the development of their proposals.

The City of Edinburgh Council officers overseeing the application process can be contacted via email or phone to assist with submissions. Further information about the fund, including officers’ contact details, can be found below.

INTRODUCTION

This funding has been allocated as a result of the city’s Culture Plan to deliver wider access to Council cultural funding opportunities and continues the Council’s core role in ensuring Edinburgh is a city of creative opportunities. Our cultural activity and offer continues to be a crucial contribution to the city’s success as an exceptional place to live and work. The Creative Community Partnerships: Collaboration & Exchange Fund aims to invest in artists’ development, and support and sustain the local artistic community as well as support greater partnership working across the arts and culture sector enabling it to flourish year-round.

With the aim of recognising local practising artists and creative practitioners living throughout Edinburgh, this fund seeks to create opportunities for greater collaboration between local communities and independent artists.

By promoting the concept of Creative Placemaking, ‘an evolving field of practice that intentionally leverages the power of the arts, culture and creativity to serve a community’s interest while driving a broader agenda for change, growth and transformation in a way that also builds character and quality of place’ (Artscape); this fund aims to celebrate the diversity of Edinburgh’s residential areas as well as unlock the creative powers of local artists to connect arts and communities.

Proposals for art-based interventions and contributions are sought from independent artists based in Edinburgh that demonstrate innovative concepts of engagement through literary work, performance and visual / public art.

Based on local lived experience, the awarded artists will represent local narratives, connect past, present and future, and/or reimagine experience and engagement with the arts. The new work will connect the arts to local residents and seek new ways to connect local audiences with the arts.

As stated in the Action Plan agreed at the Culture and Communities Committee Meeting on 18 June 2019, the City of Edinburgh Council is committed to promoting stronger collaboration, developing new partnerships and creating new funding streams for the culture sector in Edinburgh. This funding opportunity also aligns with to the City of Edinburgh Council’s ‘Outcome 12’ in the Business Plan that introduces the 20-minute neighbourhood principle that creates greater local connectivity and supports activities that improve the wellbeing of the city's residents.

The City of Edinburgh Council has allocated resources to establish three cultural project funding opportunities for projects developed throughout financial year 2021/22: Diversity & Inclusion Fund; Edinburgh Creative Practitioner/Artist Support Fund; and Creative Community Partnerships Fund: Collaboration and Exchange.  Further information on our funding can be found on the Culture Edinburgh website.

PURPOSE OF SCHEME:

The aim of this fund is to promote greater collaboration, exchange and partnerships between locally based artists and creatives and cultural organisations including collaboration with arts-based community hubs in Edinburgh. The expected project focus is the artists and their practice based in their communities.

Grants will be awarded to artist-led projects that deliver this by connecting directly with residents and communities in a creative way.

The fund is intended to support Edinburgh-based practising artists with projects and activities, including the creation, development and production of locally based work (with a view to the potential exhibition and/or exchange of that work between culture hubs), professional development, production development, development of new work and cultural events within Edinburgh.  Art forms include visual, performing (music, dance, spoken word and theatre), film, digital arts, literature and poetry. 

FUNDS AVAILABLE:

A total budget of £100,000 is available offering grant awards of up to £10,000 for projects developed in financial year 2021/22 and completed by the end of October 2022.

Please note that all project facilitators, artists, creatives, managers involved in the project delivery are expected to be remunerated as per industry rates. Only in special circumstances when project partners declare that they do not require to be paid for their work and their contribution towards the project delivery is in-kind they can be involved on a no-fee basis.  Links to industry rates, as recommended by industry bodies, are listed below:

BECTU

ITC

UK Theatre / Equity Commercial Theatre Rates

UK Theatre/ Equity Rates for Subsidised Managers (in receipt of public funding)

UK Theatre/Musicians Union

UK Theatre / Writers Guild

SSP

UK Theatre/ BECTU/Equity Choreographers:

UK Theatre/ BECTU/ Equity Designers/Resident Designers

Set and Costume Designers

Lighting Designers

UK Theatre/ BECTU/ Equity Directors

Visual Artists (Paying Artists) 

Exhibition Payment Guide

Musicians

Applicants should apply for the exact amount needed for their project and will not automatically be awarded the full amount of their application submission.  The awards panel reserves the right to award an amount different to that submitted.

DEADLINE: Friday 17 September 2021 (23:59 GMT). Late applications will not be accepted.

Please note that the funding award for successful applications will be divided into two payments (70% on receipt of a signed funding agreement and 30% following the submission and approval of a project report on completion of project). You will be advised w/b 11 October 2021 if your application has been successful by email.  Payments to successful applicants will be made within 6-8 weeks from the date of notification of grant award.

WHO CAN APPLY?

• Emerging/practising artists/creative practitioners, arts-based community hubs and cultural organisations based in Edinburgh.   
• Projects must be Edinburgh-based artist-led and be taking place within the City of Edinburgh boundary with Edinburgh-based partners.
• Partnership working is a City and Culture Plan funding priority therefore applicants will be expected to place an emphasis on this in any submission. This can be both in cash and/or in kind.

A Council revenue-funded Strategic Partner organisation or Grouping cannot lead on an application and if they are in receipt of Strategic Partnership grant funding of more than £50,000, they cannot directly receive project grant funding.  They can, however, be involved as a partner in any application.  For example, a venue may act as host or a company provide in-kind support.  A list of CEC Strategic Partner organisations and Groupings can be found in the Related Documents section. 

• Only one application per artist/organisation can be considered.
• Please note that the same project cannot be considered for all three Flexible Funds (i.e. Diversity & Inclusion Fund; Edinburgh Creative Practitioner/Artist Support Fund and Creative Community Partnerships Programme Fund).

The Culture Plan vision is that “city partners work together to keep culture and creativity at the heart of Edinburgh’s success”.  Further information on the vision can be accessed through the Council’s Business Plan.

CRITERIA:

Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

- an imaginative and/or experimental creative concept;

- confirmed partnerships and quality of project management; 

- local community involvement/engagement.

PRIORITIES:

1. Demonstrable artist/practitioner lead involvement;
2. Creative concept; and
3. Partnership/collaboration working - a City and Culture Plan funding priority.

We will be assessing the likely impact of the project and to what degree it will extend the reach of cultural activity in the city, especially in hard to reach communities, greater visibility and representation of community-based practising artists and culture in particular. 

We want to see how you propose to use this funding and what you envisage the direct impact of that funding will be.

Our focus will be on what major difference this funding will make to the project (i.e. what wouldn’t happen without this support).

EXCLUSIONS:

Applications cannot be considered:

- for projects already started or planned to start before the decision is made, unless it is the next stage of a previously completed phase of work;

- if received after the deadline date; and

- unless there is a suitable management/governance structure in place

Funding cannot support:

- Organisation’s revenue costs or permanent posts;

- Press events or launches;

- Equipment items or capital projects;

- Projects which primarily take place outside Edinburgh.

HOW TO APPLY:

Please read these guidelines carefully.  Applications must be submitted using the application form, returned by the stated deadlines and signed by the applicant. Please contact Beata Skobodzinska 0131 529 4577 beata.skobodzinska@edinburgh.gov.uk or Sandra Elgin 0131 529 6720 sandra.elgin@edinburgh.gov.uk if you require advice on your application.

Please note that we will be offering fund information sessions and individual support sessions.  This is an opportunity for you to ask any questions regarding the assessment criteria and priorities or on any elements/sections that you require more clarity on, before taking your application further.  You can register for these sessions at Eventbrite. 

Please note that the council officers managing the fund are not part of the decision-making panel, hence any information shared or requested at the information and individual support sessions remains confidential and will not inform the assessment of your application.

Before starting this application online, please download a blank PDF application form for your preview.  Please also download the Application Guidelines, the Council's Standard Conditions of Grant, and the Budget spreadsheet.  Links to the Council's Culture Plan, Business Plan and Privacy Notice are also available in the Related documents section.

APPLICATION PROCESS AND AWARDS PANEL:

Submitted application forms will be acknowledged via email. Applications will be considered by members of the awards panel, comprising officers from the City of Edinburgh Council and specialist independent advisors.

The panel will meet within 2 weeks of the fund deadline and you will be informed by email of the outcome within further 2 weeks of the meeting.

Once you have submitted my application form, please complete the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.

If you require this application in Braille, large print, audiotape or disc format, please contact the Cultural Development Team on 0131 529 6720.

What happens next

Submitted application forms will be acknowledged via email. Applications will be considered by members of the awards panel, comprising officers from the City of Edinburgh Council and specialist independent advisors.

The panel will meet within 2 weeks of the fund deadline and you will be informed by email of the outcome within further 2 weeks of the meeting.

Once you have submitted my application form, please complete the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.

Privacy Notice

To deliver Council services we need to collect, store, use, share and dispose of personal information. This is known as data processing.

When we collect personal data, we must tell you why we need it, and what we will do with it. This information is called a privacy notice.

The Privacy Notice link (located in Related section below) takes you directly to the City of Edinburgh Council’s privacy notice.  Here we explain how we process your personal information as a Council.