Would £500 help your project? | Then maybe Yorkshire Artspace Microgrants are for you.

Yorkshire Artspace is pleased to open up our offer of Microgrant support to Sheffield artists & makers for a second year.

The Microgrants aim to:

• Support artists and makers in the development of their practice and realisation of ideas.

• Increase public access to and engagement with the work of artists and makers.

In 2015, we would like the Microgrants to complement the recent opening of Exchange Place Studios and celebrate our new presence in the Castlegate area of Sheffield city centre. As such we intend to offer 2 Microgrants to link with the Castlegate Festival weekend event on 20/21 June 2015 and 2 Microgrants to link with our Open Studios event at Exchange Place on 21/22 Nov 2015.

Castlegate Festival Microgrants: the intention of the Castlegate Festival is to highlight the area through vibrant cultural activity that engages a new and existing audience with the area prior to major redevelopment.  Festival activity will include; artist led-activity and installations, pop-up exhibitions (inclduing artists and makers and School of Architecure), stalls, guided heritage tours of the area, street performers and a 60's style jam and jelly street party.  We expect the Microgrant artists to locate themselves/their work within Castlegate during this weekend event and have a visible ‘on-street’ presence. We are looking for proposals from artists who will respond to this Castlegate context.  We are looking for ideas that enable people to actively engage, interact or participate. For example this might be through an interactive artwork, a street performance or workshop activity.

Open Studios Microgrants: Yorkshire Artspace’s annual Open Studio event is an opportunity for us to open the doors of our 3 studio premises to the public. Over 100 studioholders take part and last year’s event attracted over 1000 visitors. It’s a chance to meet artists and learn more about the making process through demos, talks and workshop activity. Open Studios is not a theme that has to inform the content of the Microgrant proposal rather it is an opportunity to engage with visitors and share what you do. We expect the artist and your work to feature at the event itself. Your proposal can relate to the Castlegate context if you choose or not, we are open to any ideas, but we do expect that it address the 2 key aims indicated above.

We are very keen that all Microgrants present an opportunity to artists and makers to extend and develop your professional practice. Proposals should indicate how the Microgrant support will do this, for example, it might be that you use the microgrant to develop an idea, technical skill or process, develop a new activity or test a new approach to engagement.

WHAT YOU GET:

• Up to £500 (inc VAT).

• Advice and support from Yorkshire Artspace in development or work/project especially related to engagement.

• Blog coverage on Yorkshire Artspace website.

• Exhibition/Sharing opportunity at Yorkshire Artspace.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO:

• Realise/deliver your idea. You will be responsible for project management, driving and delivering the project to completion. • Provide us with regular updates and images of your work for inclusion on our website to help you publicise/promote your activity.

• Sign a letter of agreement with Yorkshire Artspace if successful in receiving a microgrant.

HOW TO APPLY:

Please send the following by email only to rachael@artspace.org.uk

• Written proposal outlining your idea (up to 2 sides of A4) including: how this microgrant will benefit you/your practice  and how people will be involved/engaged.

• any information you can at this stage about what you need to make it happen.

• if it’s the Open Studios or Castlegate Microgrant you are applying for.

• Budget indicating what you will spend the Microgrant money on.

• PDF of images and information to evidence your previous work.

• CV

• Equal Opportunities Form - (click here for link to download)

DEADLINE: 9am Monday 13th April 2015. Decisions made by end of April.