Coronavirus: Creative Scotland launch new bursary
The new Creative Scotland fund, which can award up to £2,500 to people affected by the coronavirus pandemic, opens today
Creative Scotland have launched a new set of bursaries and funding options for creatives and freelancers who have been affected by the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent nationwide lockdown.
The Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund is a £2 million fund aiming to help the artists, creative workers and freelancers facing immediate hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but who might fall through the gaps of other support on offer like the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The fund will award bursaries of between £500 and £2,500.
Creative Scotland say: "This fund is to support freelance artists and freelance creative practitioners working in the not-for-profit sector in Scotland who are experiencing immediate financial difficulty due to the loss of income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This fund offers a one-off bursary that will provide a financial bridge for those people in Scotland who are most deeply impacted and disadvantaged by the cancellation of work as a result of the emergency situation."
Screen Scotland have also launched a similar Bridging Bursary programme today. Their fund is aimed at "self-employed or freelancers such as crew, specialist festival and venue staff, postproduction, directors and film education and training practitioners" who have lost out as a result of the near-complete shutdown of the film and TV industries in recent weeks. As with the Creative Scotland fund, bursaries of between £500 and £2,500 will be awarded on a non-competitive basis.
There is also a new £7.5 million fund from Creative Scotland to support arts organisations aiming to work their way through the crisis. Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development "aims to enable organisations to explore ways of working that will help them to adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances", and is open all year round.
Applications for the Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund and Screen Scotland Bridging Bursary open today, Mon 30 March. There is no deadline to apply. The Open Funding: Sustaining Creative Development fund will open to applications on Friday 3 April.