Maison Foo Funding News
We are so pleased, excited, relieved and thankful to share some good Foo news….. after a tough 2020 with numerous funding knock backs and apps pulled mid assessment; we are so grateful to Arts Council England for awarding us a National Lottery Project Grant. This grant will take us through 2021 and enable us to continue our work as a Theatre Company of Sanctuary. We’d also like to thank Derby Theatre for their continued support and belief in our work as their associates.
We want to be transparent about what this means for us, and tell you a little more about the activity we have planned…
ACE have awarded us £49, 987, and we have received further partnership funding from Derby Theatre (Associate Artist fee at £1k and a further £2k to continue co delivering Meet Your Neighbour parties in 2021). We are contributing £2500 from our own reserves. Our total project budget is £56,500.
83% of funds are going directly to freelance creative practitioners.
65% of funds are going directly to our work co-creating with people seeking sanctuary.
Having stretched a grant we received in 2019 over an additional year to sustain our team through the worst (hopefully!) of Covid-19. Thanks for holding in there team, we are incredibly grateful for your support and for for bearing with us whilst we secured more funding to complete our Meet Your Neighbour Installation.
This installation platforms the voices of people seeking sanctuary, and contracts a number of freelance creatives (some new to Foo, others regular collaborators), including graduate designers, artists with lived experience of seeking sanctuary and migratory heritage and creative consultants. This will preview in spring and be completed by June 2021.
In addition, this funding will enable us to build an online platform for both people seeking sanctuary to connect, and for audiences to engage with. A digital version of the installation will be developed alongside QUAD so that we can reach audiences and connect with people across the world. Featured on this space will also be workshop videos facilitated and made by people seeking sanctuary whom we have worked with across the project. Supporting and empowering them to share their skills and knowledge with the wider world.
A large chunk of this funding goes towards vital organisation development. Foo have been going for over 12 years now and this is the first opportunity to take stock, plan for the future and build our capacity and resilience. Through this we are very excited to focus in on our diversity and inclusion - this will mean working with a diversity expert, and inviting 2 other independent arts companies along with us to develop a working group, exploring how we ensure diversity, and in particular anti-racism, is at the heart of every decision we make as a company.
We feel hugely grateful to ACE for some positive funding news – we know many deserving companies and artists have not had the same opportunity that they need to survive and continue creating this year. We recognise the responsibility we have to use this funding to continue our important work as a Theatre Company of Sanctuary, supporting freelance artists and developing our resilience for a changing world.
We welcome questions about this project - please email our producer Phoebe at Phoebe@maisonfoo.co.uk if you would like to find out more.
Maison Foo x