Creative Scotland announces new support for creative sector

Creative Scotland has launched a series of new funding programmes designed to provide extra support to sustain the country’s creative community during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The three programmes will include a Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund, a Screen Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund, and an Open Funding: Sustaining Creative Development fund.

The Creative Scotland Bridging Bursaries Fund will provide financial support for individual creative practitioners and/or freelancers who are most deeply impacted and disadvantaged by the cancellation of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic to sustain their creative practice in Scotland.

This £2 million fund will offer one-off bursary payments of between £500 and £2,500 to help support their immediate needs.

Meanwhile, a £1.5million Screen Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund will provide one-off bursaries of £500 to £2,500 to freelance PAYE and self-employed screen sector workers who are experiencing immediate financial difficulty due to loss of income as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both the above funds, opened earlier this week for applications.

The Open Funding: Sustaining Creative Development (a revised approach to the organisation’s Open Project Fund) will support creative practitioners to continue to develop work.

Applicants will be encouraged to use funding to explore how best to sustain their practice, and reimagine their work, during the current climate and in the months to come. Funds may also be used for the development and presentation of work.

The £7.5m fund will support up to 12 months of activity with a maximum award of £50,000. Applications to this fund will open on Friday, April 3.

Full guidance documents and eligibility criteria are available from the Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland websites.