Read these top tips from artists Laila Majid and Louis Newby, as discussed in our recent advice and networking session, The Social at The Photographers’ Gallery.

6 top tips to consider for your next grant application:

1. Language – using clear and simple language will make it easier for the person reading your application.
    
2. Second set of eyes – ask someone to proof-read your application, and ask them for feedback.
    
3. Use resources – there will be existing resources to help you, so use them! Have a look at online funding libraries and reach out to artists who have secured funding that you are applying for. 
    
4. Smart budgeting - be as specific as possible with your budget. Think through everything (including your fee). Those reviewing your application will easily pick up on anything you’ve forgotten about and/or omitted.
    
5. Purpose - think about what your project is seeking to achieve. What is its purpose? Give your application a conceptual/ structural core that you can always return to, as its guiding purpose.
    
6. Be prepared - have an up to date portfolio/CV/artist statement and bio ready to use.

And here are some tips from Gabriela Cala-Lesina on applying to Arts Council England (ACE) for National Lottery Project grants:

• Your application will be considered against our criteria which you will find in the Guidance and also other applications ACE receives.
• ACE thinks about the range and balance of projects, activities, disciplines, applicants, geographical areas and places we support.
• ACE receives many more good applications than we can fund.
• You can reapply! Providing you review your original application, revisit Arts Council England resources on Project Grants and address any development comments. 
• Access support is available to write your application – please contact our Customer Service team for information: enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk

Stay tuned for our next Social coming up soon.

Speakers’ biogs

Gabriela Cala-Lesina (pronouns she/her) is a Relationship Manager in the London Visual Arts team at Arts Council England. This year she is hosting a radio show Gushing with Gabby on Montez Press Radio where she brings in and shows love to LGBTQIA+ artists, drag kings & things, curators, DJs, archivists, poets and party starters that have given her life and contributed to our queer evolution, education and enjoyment. Gabriela was previously at Whitechapel Gallery, Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, Haroon Mirza’s Studio and East London Fawcett. She has been on the Advisory Board of Mimosa House Gallery and a Trustee of A New Direction, and is member of a coven, Sisters of the Sanitary Cloth. She has commissioned research on the diversity of artists in London studio spaces as well as the impact of Covid on London’s queer nightlife.  

Laila Majid and Louis Blue Newby are London based artists. Majid recently received recently received an MSt in Film Aesthetics at the University of Oxford and also an MA at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2021. Newby received his MA from Slade school of Fine Art in 2022. Recent solo shows in Majid and Newby’s collaborative practice include SKINFLICKS (2022) at XXijra Hii, London; not yet (2022), San Mei Gallery, London and healthy pink (2020), springseason, London. Their work has also been featured in group exhibitions including City Entwined (2022), Paradise Row, London; I knock on Your Skin (2022), Set Woolwich, London; Sour Persimmons Chasm (2019) and Ex Baldessarre, curated by Andy Holden. They were awarded The CIRCA x Dazed Class of 2022. In 2021 they received the Omni Colour Artists Award (2021) and in 2020 were awarded funding for an ongoing video and print project by the Elephant Trust.