Digital Development Grants

Apply for our Digital Development Grants by 5pm on Monday 13th September 2021

The Mighty Creatives (TMC) are part of a national network of 10 Bridge organisations funded by Arts Council England to use our experience and expertise to connect children and young people, schools and communities with arts and culture. The Bridge organisation role is focused on Arts Council’s strategic Goal 5 (“Every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture”) and embraces a broad definition of arts and culture, including museums, libraries, heritage and film.

Key strategies to achieving our goals include:

Artsmark: supporting self-improving schools to build the strategies, partnerships and resources to improve teaching and learning through arts and culture
Arts Award: supporting children and young people to access arts, culture and digital creation as audiences, participants, producers and leaders
Partnership working: supporting leaders to work in partnership within, across and beyond schools, families and communities to create arts and cultural pathways
Partnership investment: supporting partnerships to prepare for and secure sustainable investment, to mainstream and scale cultural education

Part of our role is to support organisations to provide children and young people with equitable access to an outstanding cultural education including that which involves digital content made by, with and for children and young people (supporting the development of creative content, captured content and creative learning).

What are The Mighty Creatives’ Digital Development Grants?

The Covid-19 emergency has required us to ask, ‘what is a post-Covid-19 world going to look like?’ We are in a period of huge change and the current crisis is having a significant impact on the cultural sector and our regions’ children and young people.

There are many questions to consider and changes to be made. We are looking to support organisations in the arts, cultural and education sectors to research and develop their digital practice with children and young people through participation (including remote participation), engagement and developing audiences. We are also looking for applications that aim to explore social isolation and wellbeing within the context of the current challenging climate and beyond.

These grants are for organisations to trial and test ideas around digital delivery across a 12-month period. Applicants will be asked to submit a digital research question that they plan to investigate through use of the grant, sharing how what they discover will enrich their organisation’s digital output. Successful applicants will also be asked to share their learning at an annual digital learning event.

We have grants available for £4000 each to support organisations and individuals in the East Midlands. Applicants may work with partners from outside the region, but the main applicant must be based within the East Midlands.

We are interested in proposals that will look at the involvement and support of Arts Award and Artsmark either in this project delivery or in future work. We will be looking for applications that look at the relationship between digital delivery and these two programmes.

What will I need to do?

If successful in being awarded a grant, you will need to attend a pre-delivery meeting with TMC to discuss planned activities, timescales and any support needed.
You will be expected to attend our Digital Development Network meetings, that take place once a quarter and share your learning at a final digital networking event.
At the end of your research and development project you will be expected to submit a final report and budget summarising your findings and future plans.

Payment of the grant

£3000 will be awarded after the planning meeting.
£1000 on receipt of the final report.

What can I use the digital grant for?

This grant can be used to trial and test ideas, connecting with partners/digital experts to shape these. It can also be used to support staff time to build capacity and widen understanding of digital thinking, understanding and methods of delivery.

The grant can be used to fund:

Creative digital development (e.g. piloting new technology or methods of delivery)
Research visits (up to a third of the grant may be spent on this)
Staff time-not including external support (up to a third of the grant can be spent on this)

The grant cannot be used for one off events and only one is available per organisation. It cannot be used to fund activity that is already happening.

Timescale and how to apply

To apply, please complete the online application explaining how the grant will help you develop your organisation’s creative digital thinking and practice.

This must include:

The digital research question you plan to investigate through the use of the grant
An outline of your current use of digital within your organization and what you want to discover/develop across the next 12 months through use of the grant. How will your research respond to challenges we currently face as a sector due to Covid-19?
How you will support activity related to Arts Award and Artsmark either during the duration of the project or in the future
An explanation of how this work is focused on children and young people including developing audiences, participation or engagement. Also, how your digital developments will help broaden access to arts and culture for children and young people.
A thorough budget explaining how you will use the £4000 Please provide details of any match funding.