Arts and Cultural Fund

The arts, cultural and creative projects, such as festivals and exhibitions, all contribute to helping communities recover from the pandemic and play an integral part in enabling the objectives of Essex County Council’s wider objectives as set out in Everyone’s Essex.

Creative and cultural sectors are at the forefront of economic and social regeneration in our region. One of the aims of the fund is to provide a boost for the creative and cultural sector which will enable organisations and practioners to develop long term and sustainable future for arts and culture in the county.

Now open for applications, the ECC Arts and Cultural Fund will offer artists and cultural organisations grants from £2,500 to £30,000 to deliver projects to help support and rejuvenate the Essex arts and culture sector, as well as the county’s towns and city high streets.

The fund will support projects, which will contribute to ECC’s Everyone’s Essex: The Plan for Essex 2021-2025 within the music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, combined arts, including festivals and carnivals, museums and the wider creative sectors.

The Arts and Cultural Fund will support revenue programmes only, not capital. A full list of what the Fund cannot support can be found in the guidance.

Examples of eligible organisations include:

• Individual artists or artistic cooperatives

• Community groups

• Charities or trusts

• Community interest companies

• Social enterprises

• Public sector organisations (not local authorities)

• Private sector organisations

• Organisations that are part of a local authority’s direct provision will be considered on a case-by-case basis

Read the full guidance document here.

Read the Fund FAQs here.

Apply now here.