5. Getting to go - writing and getting the DYCP award
I submitted my first DYCP application in February 2020. I’d just been offered a really interesting residency with Quiet Down There. ‘Pull Up a Chair’, was a new model of artist residency for socially engaged, participatory artists. I was really excited, a change in the work that I made and how I made it was long overdue. A period of ill health 2014 - 2018 had limited what I could do professionally. The residency was a really useful framework to build a DYCP programme of activity around.
It took quite a lot of courage for me to make the application. I’ve fundraised for projects, for organisations, and for a company I founded but never asked for support for my own work.
This is the first time I’ve ever asked for Arts Council Funding for my own project. For lots of reasons. Mainly because I’ve never asked but also because:
I wanted to have the perfect project idea before asking
I didn’t have confidence in my own ideas (so why would anyone else)
Someone else deserves support more than me
I placed too much emphasis on getting the funding as a marker of my validity as an artist (or not) so it was too risky to ask and get a no.
Four years of illness, and maybe getting a bit older, helped me develop a slightly more ‘fuck it’, attitude. I spent some time reflecting and critically appraising my skills and experiences. I talked to lots of friends and colleagues, took part in a Dais Hale’s Zoom workshop, read successful applications shared on The White Pube Funding Library , and used The Uncultured template to draft the application. I was brave and asked artists I admire if they would be mentors. I did a bit of dreaming about what I thought would nourish me (as well as challenge me). In February 2020 I submitted an application with a programme of work that I was proud of, excited and a bit daunted by. In March 2020, lots of things ground to a halt. Including pretty much all of my work, the ability to do the residency and Arts Council England’s regular funding programmes.
The residency sort of happened in a Covid compliant way a year later. It wasn’t what any of us wanted for the project but I did get to discover Gravesend, meet some amazing people, and connect with LV21, a brilliant organisation. I blogged about the project here. It kept alive the sense of wanting to make a shift in how I worked, in connecting to people and place through my creative practice. I wanted to explore how to do this in more regenerative ways, that enabled me to move closer to making the sort of work I wanted to make in the way I wanted to make it.
It took the best part of 18 months of fermenting to re-imagine what a DYCP application could be. There were lots of walks and talks with Jo Mackie (@jcmackie) and Lily Einhorn (@madewithstring) and chewing over what change I wanted to make, and what processes and activities might enable me to make that change. I revisited the funding library. It was weird because my previous application had been neither successful nor unsuccessful so it was hard to know how to shape this new ask.
At this point I want to acknowledge the resources I had access to:
time, to think, research and write the bid
my own experience of writing funding applications
generous and brilliant people who shared their expertise and time with me for free.
I was really, really pleased in April 2020 to be awarded the DYCP. Predictably I had to delay the start as work had finally started to come through and I’d committed to some other projects. I started small and was really looking forward to getting stuck in later in 2020. I did find it hard to start, a little paralysed by wanting to make the most of the opportunity and a dose of fear of getting it wrong as I started trying to do new things. But mostly I was chuffed-to-bits and curious. I was finally on the way. Then I broke my pelvis at the same time as family caring responsibilities unexpectedly increased.
What I learned:
Time for reflection at a career / direction of travel level (not just project by project) is really important and in itself transformational. I should plan to do this regularly, not just when preparing for a DYCP.
It’s worth investing in finding useful tools to support kindly, critical reflection of my practice (so far this has been time, but it might be money to enable me to work with a coach or mentor)
Call in every bit of support I can for each stage of the process. Ask for help. I didn’t call on support from organisations I work with (for time, space, application reading) and I will in future.
Work the plan you make, I sort of got weirdly shy or lost confidence in my planning at one point. Don’t be afraid to re-work the plan if things need to change.
There are always challenges – communicate these more quickly to everyone involved in the project.
Find a way to keep going. Even if it’s the tiniest forward motion, 5 minutes of thinking counts. Build from there.
Huge thanks to all the independent artists, producers and makers who support each other, across the sector, and especially to Dais Hale, The Uncultured (Ashleigh Bowmott and Laura Sweeney) and The White Pube (Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad ). I’m so proud to be part of this community.
Resources, references and further reading
Funding Library | The White Pube
RESOURCES | The Hale - scroll down for DYCP resources, including tax advice
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