WAF Grants applications are OPEN!

Deadline: Fri 27 October 2023, 12pm.

About the WAF Grants

The WAF 2024 Grants  fund activities and events that will take place as part of  Wandsworth Arts Fringe from  7 June - 23 June 2024. The WAF Grants are here to help you realise your creative vision.

Wandsworth Arts Fringe supports the cultural life of the borough and plays an important role as a testing ground and marketplace for new ideas and audiences.

To find out more about Wandsworth Arts Fringe and how to take part, visit our Get Involved page.

The WAF grants are funded directly by Wandsworth Council through the Wandsworth Grant Fund, which sets £20,000 aside to support WAF activity each year.

Awards

Grants fund up to 70% of the total project cost. The maximum award is £2,000.

Who can apply?

Applications are open to organisations, partnerships and individuals that demonstrate how they meet the criteria of the grant, provided the proposed activity takes place or culminates during WAF and is fully budgeted.

The fund is unable to support profit making ventures, fund-raising activities, capital, core costs and course fees. For the full list of items the Council is unable to fund, please refer to the grants Terms & Conditions.

Applicants do not have to be based in Wandsworth. However, the proposal must take place in the borough and benefit Wandsworth residents. We recommend that you include a carefully considered marketing and audience development plan in your application.

Applicants who were awarded a WAF grant in the past 3 years but failed to produce an evaluation report may not apply.

WAF grant applications are scored according to the assessment criteria and strategic priorities outlined below.

Applications should demonstrate arts content and meet one or more of the following strategic priorities:

• Communities and Partnerships: To support residents and communities to build stronger neighbourhoods and enhance community cohesion.
• Economic Growth: To ensure that town centres and shopping parades are vibrant and culturally rich places to explore and enjoy.
• Health and Wellbeing: Using arts, culture and creativity to inspire and support people to live healthy, fulfilled and independent lives.
• Access for all: to actively work to improve accessibility for all our residents (in particular, reaching new and hard-to-reach participants) both to enjoy culture and to join the borough’s creative workforce.
• Learning/Education: To support our young residents to access creative outlets, nurturing talents and establishing pathways into the cultural and creative industry sector.
• Sustainability: To utilise culture as part of Wandsworth’s drive to be the greenest inner London Borough and carbon neutral by 2030.

Assessment criteria:

• Artistic quality: we are looking to develop bold work, engaged artistic practice or innovative working model
• Strategic fit: does your project address at least one of our strategic priorities?
• Deliverability: project timeframe, partners and collaborators
• Impact: who will benefit from your project and how so? How will you measure it? Value for money

NOTE: WAF reserves the right to prioritise proposals that fill existing gaps in provision.

WAF Grants Closing Date is: Friday 27 October 2023, 12pm

All applications must embrace equality of opportunity and professionalism. By professionalism we mean, for example, undertaking risk assessments, having a safeguarding policy in place and recognising the need for artists to be fairly paid for their work.

How To Apply

Complete the grant application form and budget worksheet by Friday 27 October 2023, 12pm.

If you would prefer to apply in another format that a written word document, please email wafgrants@wandsworth.gov.uk to discuss your requirements.

WAF Grant Surgeries

Book a 1-2-1 surgery with the WAF producers to ask questions about your WAF Grants application - email cath.mattos@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk to book your session on either:

• Tuesday 10 October, 5pm - 7pm on Zoom 
• Wednesday 18 October, 2pm - 4pm on Zoom
• Wednesday 25 October, 6pm - 7.30pm on Zoom 
  

Please note: You need to have completed an Expression of Interest before you can be offered a surgery slot.

Grants surgeries are in high demand, so each artist/organisation can benefit from one grant surgery only each year. We advise you have a go at filling out the application form and budget before your surgery to get the most out of your session. One-off questions can be emailed directly to WAF Producer Cath Mattos at any point after completing your EOI.