Belfast City Council: Arts and Heritage Grant

Overview

Purpose of the Grant

The Arts and Heritage Project Grant will support one-off arts and heritage projects that are innovative – that is, new or unique to Belfast – or organisational development, or both.

The proposed project must contribute to two of the A City Imagining themes:

A City Imagining is Belfast’s new cultural strategy. It sets out their priorities under four themes:

• A City Belonging is about active citizenship, supporting all our citizens to be active agents of change and co-creators of cultural activity
• A City Challenging is about creative placemaking that strengthens our residents’ connection to the city they call home.
• A City Creating is about new ways of working, helping organisations and cultural practitioners develop, innovate or experiment.
• A City Exploring is about looking outward and connecting Belfast to the rest of the world.

You can get a copy of A City Imagining from their website, www.belfastcity.gov.uk/culturalstrategy, or by contacting the Tourism, Culture and Arts Unit.

Funding Limits

Maximum award: £10,000 for each organisation in each financial year.

Specfic Conditions for Eligibility

You must meet the basic eligibility and the following criteria to apply for the Arts and Heritage Project Grant.

• Your organisation must be a formally constituted, not-for-profit arts, heritage or community organisation (taken from the constitution or memorandum and articles of association). Community organisations can only apply for heritage projects (that is to say, community organisations cannot apply for funding towards arts projects. If you are a community organisation interested in arts activities the Tourism, Culture and Arts Unit can provide you with helpful advice and signpost you to alternative sources of funding. Contact details are available at the end of these guidance notes.)
• Your budget must show you have made efforts to find at least 20% of your income from sources other than us. For example, if your total income is £12,500 the maximum you can ask for is £10,000. (This can include other government funding, commercial sponsorship and income you expect to earn from the project. However, in-kind support cannot contribute to your 20%.)
• Your project must be a stand-alone piece of work with a set beginning and end that will deliver a unique artwork or other specific outcome.
• If you are in receipt of an Imagine Cultural Multi-annual Grant, you are not eligible to apply for an Arts and Heritage Project Grant for your Imagine festival or event, including any outreach or associated activity.
• If you are in receipt of an Enable, Activate or Anchor Cultural Multi-annual Grant, you must clearly demonstrate how the project you are applying for is additional to your annual programme, festival or event.
• Depending on the number and quality of applications we receive, we may prioritise applications from organisations who do not receive a Culture Multi-annual Grant.
• If in the opinion of the council the work applied for is not clearly additional, the council’s opinion is final.
• If you are applying for funding in tranche 2, your project must start within the eligible period. They do recognise that you may have to carry out some work, such as meetings and research, to plan your project and complete this application form. However, they will not fund any activity that takes place or any contracts that have been entered in to before the eligible period.

Completing your budget for small grants

You must show that all costs are reasonable and necessary to complete the project, and you should give them enough detail to assess this. For example, you should give the unit costs and quantities needed, 10 artists x £50 = total cost £500.

For a full list of restricted costs, please guidance notes.

Criteria and scoring

Weighting = (out of 100%)

• Need and demand for the project -10
• Contribution to two A City Imagining themes - 25 per theme (50 marks in total)
  • A City Belonging is about active citizenship, supporting all our citizens to be active agents of change and co-creators of cultural activity. You should describe the impact your project will have on your attendees, participants, volunteers or other beneficiaries. We are particularly interested in activity that benefits people or groups most at risk of missing out.
  • A City Challenging is about using arts and heritage to strengthen residents’ connections to the place they call home, whether that is their neighbourhood, community or the whole city. It can be physical – using space in innovative ways – or conceptual – telling new stories or challenging existing narratives.
  • A City Creating is about new ways of working, helping organisations and cultural practitioners develop, innovate or experiment. We are particularly interested in work that has an impact outside your organisation and your immediate beneficiaries.
  • A City Exploring is about looking outward and connecting Belfast to the rest of the world. This could be by connecting with other organisations and cultural practitioners around the world, showcasing your unique cultural activity, attracting visitors to the city or marketing to key tourism markets.
• Quality of your project and its delivery - 40
  • You should show how:
    • your project is innovative and high quality;
    • you are using effective marketing and communications, if relevant;
    • you will effectively monitor and evaluate the success of your project;
    • you are using appropriate skills and resources to deliver the project;
    • your budget is detailed and all costs are reasonable and necessary; and
    • you are using funding from sources other than Belfast City Council.

Application notes

You must tick the boxes to confirm that your organisation:

• has met the eligibility requirements;
• has enclosed the documents we have asked for or confirmed they have been previously supplied to the Central Grants Unit;
• has no conflicts of interest with any of the suppliers you will use for activities funded through the grant applied for;
• has or will arrange enough appropriate insurance for the activities. Where you are holding an event on Belfast City Council property - a risk assessment, proof of public liability insurance up to £5 million and an event management plan must be given by your organisation to the Open Spaces and Active Living Officer (for a Parks event Grant) or the relevant Belfast City Council property manager (for all other grants) at least 4 weeks before your event. Failure to do so will result in the withdrawal of the grant offer. Templates of a risk assessment and an event management plan are available at www.belfastcity.gov.uk/usingparks; and
• has or will get any licences or permission you need from any authority to carry out your activities.
• Operates all projects with the appropriate staff/volunteer/participants ratios as dictated by the current best practise/your current project risk assessment and needs of the individual participants.

To be eligible for funding, you must have the following policies in place.

• your organisation’s own policy and procedures for safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk of harm consistent with current legislation and best practise
• all members of staff and volunteers who will be employed/engaged in the project or programme and fall into the regulated categories as per the Safeguarding of Vulnerable Groups (NI) Order 2007 (as amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012) have had the appropriate level of Access NI check carried out
• Equal opportunities – Only if you employ staff.
• Specific grants may have further policy requirements.