Feature: Where to find funding?

Funding your practice is an integral and unfortunately a time-consuming part of being an artist or designer/maker. However, with any idea, exhibition, event or collection that needs funding, there some simple steps you can follow to make the process easier.

Firstly, it is always useful to have some basic information at the ready that you can use to build the foundations of a funding proposal. These should include your Artist CV, Artist Statement, and documentation of your work/practice. If you have a website and any active social media accounts they should be up to date.

Next focus and hone your idea, you need to be able to articulate it confidently and know it inside out. Why are you seeking funding for this idea in particular? What are your motivations? How will it function and what do you hope to achieve? What have you done previously that has led you to this point? 

From here you can identify the right source of funding for your idea. For example, is it something that fits the ACE Grants for the Arts remit? Or would it be better suited to crowdfunding? Is match-funding with a mix of funding sources the best way forward? Is anything (space, equipment, etc) available to you in kind?

So, where can you find different types of funding?

Grants for the Arts advice:
ACE Grants for the Arts website
Advice article from Ideastap
Advice article for FuelRCA

Other sources of funding:
Arts & Business
The Elephant Trust
IdeasTap
Big Lottery Fund
The Wellcome Trust

Crowdfunding sites:
Kickstarter
IndieGoGo
We Fund
Crowdfunder

Organisations offering funding advice:
University of the Arts London (UAL)
ArtsQuest
Public Art Online
FuelRCA
ArtsHub
Arts Health and Wellbeing