The Arts Council of Wales has announced that there will be revised dates for the second round of the Connect and Flourish fund - its National Lottery supported fund, designed to encourage collaborative projects between organisations, individuals and creative professionals.
The fund will now open to applications on 17 February and close on 17 March.
Commenting today, Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Wales said:
“Connect and Flourish is a new type of fund which encourages different and more collaborative ways of working. It also gives previously unheard voices an opportunity to contribute towards making the arts in Wales more representative and accessible. The first round saw the distribution of £2.3m and the second round aims to distribute up to a further £2.7m.
“We’ve reflected carefully on what we learned from the first round of applications and the latest “lockdown” restrictions, along with sector feedback, has persuaded us that we need to make adjustments to some aspects of the Fund. This means that we should be able to respond more easily to a wider range of applicants, such as festivals, many of whom have found innovative ways of presenting activity that acknowledges the Covid challenges. Given the range of useful advice that we’ve received, we felt it was important to take a little extra time to get this right.”
A full set of guidance notes – including in different formats such as EasyRead and BSL – will be available at the launch of the Fund and will be available through the Arts Council of Wales website.
The first round of successful applications was announced in December 2020, with 33 projects approved, totalling £2.3m. Connect and Flourish offers grants of between £500 and £150,000 for projects with a strong emphasis on collaboration between individual artists, non-arts groups and arts organisations with the aim of encouraging new ideas that will support artists to emerge from the challenges of the pandemic and supporting a strong and resilient arts sector that properly reflects our country’s people and communities.
For more information, and to apply for Connect and Flourish, visit https://arts.wales/funding/get-started/organisations/connect-and-flourish
END Wednesday 13 January 2021