Lo and Behold! The Poetry School Micro-Commission Fund

Lo and Behold! The Poetry School Micro-Commission Fund

The Poetry School invites applications to its fund to support innovative poetry creation and promotion projects.

We have five sums of £750 to support poets, artists and producers in the creation of ambitious new work. We want to fund projects that explore new ways of creating or promoting poetry, projects that create a little bubble of excitement and potential in the poetry world.

Your project can be solely poetry focused, or it can combine poetry with another art form or discipline. You can apply as an individual or as part of a collective. You can compose poetry, write it, read it, publish it, broadcast it, consume it or otherwise manipulate it. If you’ve got an idea that you’d like to try out, but lack of funds has prevented you up to this point – we want to hear from you.

We want to fund projects that have shareable results – we want there to be a readership or an audience for the things that you create. You could change one audience member’s life fundamentally with your project, or you could influence a thousand people more fleetingly, but we want to see evidence of some meaningful connection between the creator and the crowd.

The rationale behind this fund is two-fold: to support new ideas, and to generate discussion around those new ideas which we can share with our students and the wider poetry community with a view to inspiring them to create their own new work in turn.

There are already in existence many successful poetry publishing and promoting projects, and we are unlikely to fund projects that merely extend or replicate existing activities. This fund is to support innovative and exciting projects that might not be able to flourish without a little extra financial support from the Poetry School. Surprise us.

Terms & Conditions

• Members of Poetry School staff and its Board are not eligible to apply to the Micro Commission fund, although people who teach or have taught for the Poetry School are.
• The decision about which projects to fund will be made by Poetry School staff, and that decision is final.
• Successful candidates will be notified by 14 January 2015. If you have not heard from us by that date, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful.
• If your project involves income generation from ticket sales or similar, that income will be yours to keep.
• The Poetry School can offer meeting room space to support your project if that is useful. Our larger classroom can double as a rehearsal space, although it is not technically equipped.
• Applicants need not have a prior connection with the Poetry School, but the successful commissions will be promoted throughout its networks, and participants will be expected to support this promotion.
• Funds need to be fully allocated (ie, we need to have paid you) by the end of March 2015, and projects need to be complete by the end of June 2015.
• A formal – although not extensive – evaluation of all projects will take place at their completion.

How to Apply

Please send an application of up to 1,000 words outlining your plans for the Micro Commission to Julia Bird, Head of Programmes at [email protected] by 10 December 2014. You should include a CV tailored to this application, a timeline for the delivery of your project and a basic budget. If images / video / audio would support your application, please include the appropriate files or links in your application.

Notes

The Poetry School is a national arts education charity based in London. It exists to nurture poetic talent and support the development of poets in aid of a dynamic, diverse and popular contemporary poetry for readers and audiences everywhere.