Arts Award Access Fund
Overview
What is Access fund?
The Access Fund provides grants of between £100-£1500 to Arts Award centres working on Arts Award projects with young people who face barriers to access and inclusion.
- Pilot: Are you delivering Arts Award for the first time or introducing a new level of the awards in your delivery?
- Embed: Perhaps you have been running the awards on an ad hoc basis for some time and are now exploring ways to embed it more in your centre’s work with young people.
- Develop: Are you exploring a new approach to delivering the awards, or looking to add value to your project to make it more meaningful and impactful for young people? If you want to use the grant for another purpose, there will be an opportunity to explain this to us in the application form.
It is expected that the young people benefitting from the Access Fund grant will successfully complete their Arts Award. For Discover this means receiving a Discover certificate, and for Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold this means completing a successful moderation.
Who can apply?
They welcome applications from all registered Arts Award centres in the UK, but priority will be given to centres that:
- are working with young people who experience barriers to access and inclusion
- will use the grant to support them to pilot, embed or develop their Arts Award work with these groups
You must meet the following criteria:
- The person writing the application must be a trained Arts Award adviser
- The application must come from a registered Arts Award centre
- The centre must have its own bank account
Not yet an adviser? Visit www.artsaward.org.uk/training to book your training.
Haven’t registered your centre yet? Go to www.artsaward.org.uk/adviserportal
See how the Access Fund has been used to support centres in the past
How much money can you apply for?
Centres can apply for a grant of between £100 and £1,500. If you are working with less than five young people you will only be eligible for a grant based on a per head basis. The maximum grant limits for individuals are: £300 for one young person, £600 for two young people, £900 for three young people and £1,200 for four young people. A group is defined as five or more young people. The maximum grant for a group is £1,500. Value for money will be considered when assessing applications, taking into account the Arts Award level, requirements of the young people, and specific activity taking place.
A centre cannot receive more than £1,500 in any calendar year
What can the money be used for?
- Discover, Explore or Bronze arts logs
- Fees for workshops with a professional or specialist
- General art materials, printing costs, etc
- Tickets for events
- Travel to and from a venue
- Contribution towards the costs of Gold leadership projects
- Hire of specialist equipment or specialist venue
- Adviser/project management/staff time
- Discover certificates
- Moderation fees for Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold
- Specific access requirements e.g. BSL/other translators; assistive technology specifically related to the Arts Award project (where renting is not cost effective)