2023 grants
A full breakdown of grants made can also be found here.
ARTS
Big Brum Theatre in Education Company Ltd £2,000
This Theatre in Education program, will tour secondary schools from October 2023 and will use a specifically commissioned play, ‘The Clearing’ to engage up to 1700 young people aged 11-16, in genuine conversations about their/our impact on the planet.
The Open Theatre Company £5,000
A series of performances in local community spaces, devised and performed by artists with learning disabilities, celebrating their creativity and stories.
Persona Arts £1,500
Flying Dutchman is a BME‐led combined arts opera project which concludes with performances in Birmingham. Skiling young people with underrepresented professional and community artists. Increasing the engagement of opera in Birmingham, providing training opportunities to perform this work in German.
ACE Music and Dance £5,000
ACE Dance & Music and Black Voices will deliver a Doorstep Carnival at Grosvenor Road Studios. A legacy from the B2022 Cultural Festival, the event will feature carnival costumes, and performances by professional dancers, singers, children, and Birchfield residents.
The Peoples Orchestra (TPO) £5,000
Arts Leaders builds robust training pathways supporting emerging music professionals, from Birmingham, to develop sustainable portfolio careers. The project aims to develop professional careers of orchestral and choral musicians from backgrounds underrepresented in classical music.
Rainbow Voices £4,800
Support costs for Rainbow Voices; a non-auditioned community choir for LGBTQ+ people and their allies. We provide a unique community space for LGBTQ+ individuals who love music to gather, sing, and perform together.
sampad £4,950
This project will upskill South Asian freelance artists in creative delivery for children and young people, ensuring Sampad’s learning programme continues to be of the highest quality as it grows and develops.
OPEN SPACES
Birmingham Open Spaces Forum £5,000
This project will work in under-resourced local communities in Birmingham that have high green space inequalities, providing hands-on support for volunteer groups to engage with their community open spaces, become more sustainable and deliver community activities and opportunities in local parks.
Highbury Orchard Community CIC £4,950
Highbury Orchard Community, working in partnership with Uffculme School, will create a Sensory Garden to awaken the senses and calm the mind to allow full appreciation of Highbury Park, its heritage, and nature for everyone.
ROAM £3,185
Pilot to replicate another of ROAM’s outdoor playgroups in another Birmingham park. Working alongside a local community group to get them going, whilst creating a guide and resources to help other groups replicate the model.
HERITAGE
Craftspace £4,000
An intergenerational project marking 75 years of Windrush showing how textile crafts travelled from the Caribbean to England through ‘Dorcas Clubs’. Caribbean artists and elders will devise an exhibition acknowledging the contribution of Windrush craft heritage to British heritage/culture.
COMMISSIONS
CBSO £5,000
Commissioning of Héloïse Werner’s Crossings (premiered at Sounds New concert and supported by the John Feeney Trust) into a larger work as part of the CBSO 2024/25 Season.
Aidem Digital CIC £10,500
Birmingham Asian community played a significant role in the Grunwick dispute of 1976-1978. This commission will mark the 75th anniversary of this event with the painting of a wall in a traditional Truck Art style by Haider Ali, in Handsworth where the Asian Worker Association is still based.
Curiosity Productions £10,000
The commission of Water Song Cycle, a new work for early years (0-2-year-olds) by Fox & Rocha, the artists behind BAM: Babies’ Adventures in Music. These sensory compositions will be co-created with families in Birmingham.
Midlands Arts Centre £6,500
Midlands Arts Centre will commission Birmingham-based Women in Theatre to create a new theatre production and participation progamme about Louisa Ryland, who bequeathed the land for Cannon Hill Park to Birmingham in 1873, celebrating the park’s 150th Anniversary.