Derbyshire groups get creative with grants
18 January 2008
Grants totalling more than £5,400 designed to help boost community arts in Derbyshire have been handed out by Derbyshire County Council.
A school, craft group and projects working with young people are among six projects to benefit from the authority’s latest round of small arts grants.
Derbyshire County Council awards the grants three times a year to organisations developing the arts in the county. Worth up to a maximum of £1,000, they are designed to help:
Develop new audiences and participants in arts activity
Support arts work with disabled people
Support arts work in rural areas
Support the creative economy
Beneficiaries in the latest round of grants are:
- Ilkeston School and Specialist Arts College (£1,000) – To cover the costs of staging a fashion show with students designing, making and modelling clothes outside of school time
- Barlborough Community Craft Group (£868) – To put on a series of craft workshops
- The Athenaeum Project (£665) – Working with young people to create a graffiti mural in Melbourne. The project is a charity dedicated to helping young people help themselves
- First Steps (£1,000) – This is a project to help young people in Coton-in-the-Elms in South Derbyshire. The money will be used to create a website to help young people aged 15 to 25 to start successful creative businesses.
- Toddlers’ Talking Together (£1,000) – Music, dance and puppet workshops for toddlers and their families in Kirk Hallam, near Ilkeston.
- Ilkeston Festival (£939) – Towards the cost of commissioning artists and workshops for the Ilkeston Festival 2008
Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for cultural services Councillor Bob Janes said: “These projects are playing a vital part in promoting the arts in Derbyshire and help bring the arts into the community.
“The county has a thriving arts scene and the county council is happy to be able to support the good work being done by groups and organisations across the area.”
Groups can apply for a small arts grant if they satisfy the criteria of opening up opportunities for new audiences in Derbyshire; support work with disabled people, or in rural areas, or encourage creativity in local communities.
An application form can be downloaded from the county council website from the arts grants page or ring the authority’s arts team on 01773 831385.
Media enquiries only to Catriona Cummings on 01629 585271
