Our 2022 -2023 Creative Fund opens on 22nd June 2022.
Closing date: 27th July 2022 at 5pm
Please read the guidelines in full, download and complete the application form and send to [email protected] along with any images, video links or files in support of your application.
We also accept video applications using English or BSL. Submissions should be sent as a link or file by email by the closing date to [email protected]
If you would like to talk through your idea or find out more about the fund please email Heidi [email protected] and we’ll be happy to arrange a phone call or coffee prior to your application.
We will be including an info session about the fund at our next artists network meet up on 30th June in Edinburgh. See our artist network page to sign up and our quarterly meetings page to find out more about this event.
The applications will be reviewed by a panel including members of our staff team, board of directors and external industry representatives and artists.
Decisions are expected to be made by the 12th August and awards made by the middle- end of the month.
BSL Info & How To Apply:
About the fund
Scottish-based artists of any discipline can apply for up to £5k to explore creative, training or research projects related to puppetry, object manipulation, visual theatre and animated film. Our awards enable specific, time-limited research and development to explore imaginative and compelling new creative ideas, develop technical skills or conduct research.
Each artist will also be supported with mentorship from within and beyond PAS, free tickets to attend work at our festivals and access to the same wellbeing benefits as our staff team. We are looking for great ideas and for artists who can articulate why we are the right organisation to support them and why now is the right time in their career. The fund will open each year in early summer – subscribe to our newsletter for updates.
Projects previously supported
Since 2008 we have funded over 70 projects through Creative Fund. Here are some examples of projects we have supported:
STEMS by Ainslie Henderson
Ainslie said: “All the projects that I completed in the three years after leaving art school were either commissions, or schemes set up with tight deadlines and objectives. While I enjoyed these challenges, I longed for some space to explore, experiment, wonder and remind myself how to play. I think in our hyper productive society this is a mode of being that is typically, hugely undervalued. I was tired, worn out and beginning to lose my passion for creating. On my receipt of a Creative Fund award, knowing that my studio rent was taken care of, and that a piece of finished work fitting a specific brief was not expected of me, I began to reinvigorate my relationship with what it means to be creative.”
Following its launch in 2015, STEMS was presented with great success at leading animation festivals around the world, winning numerous nominations and prizes including, the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s McLaren Award and being long listed for the 2016 Oscars.
FERAL by Tortoise in a Nutshell
Tortoise in a Nutshell said: “The Creative Fund has been fundamentally instrumental to our success. It has given us the time and space to explore tiny flashes of ideas. It has allowed us to test and experiment and refine those initial sparks into something more tangible. It has allowed us to see what was working and, perhaps even more importantly, what was not.”
Feral has been performed in cities around the world to critical acclaim, and has won many awards including a Scotsman Fringe First, Best Theatre Performance and Best Direction Awards in Kortoski Festival, Montenegro and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick.