For Now...Bursaries for Artists

In the past two weeks, the COVID-19 crisis has impacted all our lives immeasurably. We know that many in our community are facing significant financial stress as work is cancelled and future commitments are unclear.

This brings a new urgency to The Work Room’s commitment to supporting a sustainable environment for independent dance artists working in Scotland.

Whist there has been response to support for those who are self-employed, both through the UK Government’s Self Employment Income Support Scheme and Creative Scotland’s Bridging Bursaries and Sustaining Creative Development funds for individual artists, we are aware that these will take time to access and for some, the financial need is more immediate.

In response to this, The Work Room is putting in place For Now bursaries of up to £500 for members and have allocated a total budget of £15,000 from our reserves towards this. We anticipate supporting 30 – 40 bursaries. 

This is emergency funding for those within our community who are most in need due to loss of earning and require immediate support ahead of accessing other funding streams or income support. We ask that you reflect on your personal circumstances and give consideration to others within our membership prior to submitting a request. Although COVID-19 does not discriminate, we recognise that it is impacting people differently and those who face discrimination because of protected characteristics are likely to be more severely impacted.

We consider as priorities for support, members who:

-  Have no other sources of financial support or savings;

-  Have caring responsibilities;

-  Are disabled or have underlying health conditions;

-  Have been self-employed for less than a year and would therefore not qualify for the UK Government’s support.

Our For Now.. bursaries are simply to meet need and support you at this time.  There is no expectation for you to create or produce anything in return.

To request support through For Now, please email:  

ForNow@theworkroom.org.uk with a short statement on how a bursary will support you at this time and indicating the level of funding requested. 

All requests will be treated in complete confidence by The Work Room staff team. We will endeavour to respond to requests within 5 working days.

We will ask those who receive bursaries to share with us information on the impact of COVID-19 on you through loss of income so that we can provide anonymous evidence of the impact of loss of earnings and support across the sector.

Along with these bursaries, TWR team will be available for individual conversations over the next few weeks to support members in identifying and navigating application processes for funding, support and opportunities. You can book a session here.

https://theworkroom.org.uk/events/talk-it-through

We understand that these are difficult times and we appreciate the direct impact of the challenges on all our lives. We are regularly updating information on our website about funds, support and opportunities that are available, alongside listening to requests to offer further practical support where possible.