ECC Arts and Cultural Fund
*Closed for the second round of 2023 funding* Supporting the arts, culture and creative industries in Essex.
The Essex County Council Arts and Cultural fund has been designed to help organisations and practitioners to deliver a broad and exciting range of work and activity to engage with and bring communities together.
Read more about the recipients of the Arts and Cultural Fund for 2023 here.
*Now closed for applications for the second round of 2023 funding*
The arts, cultural and creative programmes, 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.
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.
Successful Projects 2022
Successful projects from the first round of funding (including Sharon Rawlinson's ‘The Art Box’ pictured above and those featured in the video below) have already had remarkable outcomes via a range of exciting activities and programmes, a full list of which can be viewed here.
Read case studies from Frinton Summer Theatre and Sharon Rawlinson's ‘The Art Box’.
View the full list of Essex Arts and Cultural Funded projects 2022 here.
See our interactive map of where the 2022 funded projects are taking place here.
Check our Events page to find out what's going on near you.
Watch the Virtual Launch event video
Who is eligible?
*Now closed for the second round of 2023 funding*
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.
