Creative Steps for Individuals Fund

Rolling, final deadline Thursday 27th November – link here

The aim of this fund is to support individual artists and organisations who have experienced barriers to accessing our funding. Creative Steps aims to address this by supporting artists and organisations throughout their journey, helping them with their professional, business and organisational development. 

We believe it is crucial to support these individuals and organisations because it is a priority for us to increase the diversity of work being created, funded and celebrated in Wales.

We want to make sure that you have sufficient time to complete your application, including any support/mentoring that’s required. Please note that if you have not already spoken to a Development Officer and discussed a draft proposal with them, we will not be able to release a link to an application form less than 2 weeks before a published deadline. Thank you.Who can apply?

Creative Steps for Individuals is open to individual artists and creatives who identify as being ethnically and culturally diverse, Deaf, disabled or neurodivergent. This scheme focuses on these particular groups because research, both internally and externally, tells us that we are not engaging enough with individuals from these backgrounds. It also tells us that individuals from these backgrounds and lived experiences have not been able to access our funding easily and have faced barriers and/or discrimination.

Please see the next drop down for our full definitions.

We advise that you read the eligibility criteria below to find out if you’re eligible to apply for this fund.

Take a look at our eligibility criteria for individuals.

Our criteria for individuals states that you must have experience as an artist or creative professional. You may have had breaks, and your artistry does not have to be your main source of income, but you must have demonstrable artistic or creative experience.

Our criteria for individuals states that you must have some experience of making and sharing work with others (a performance or exhibition for example). For those that do not have this experience, we may still be able to support you as long as you submit a portfolio to us with your application. We may decide to fund you based on your artistic potential.

You must clearly articulate the barriers you’ve had in your journey and how the Creative Steps funding can help remove those barriers. We recognise that it can be difficult to talk about negative or harmful experiences so we will do our best to ensure that applicants are able to share their experiences in a safe environment.