Creative Funding and Fish & Chips!
CBC’s Black Country Funding Network for Arts & Culture
On Wednesday 12th October we held our first funding network event in person. Kindly hosted by Black Country Living Museum in their fabulous new Visitors Centre, it was lovely to welcome around 40 people, representing creative groups and organisations from across the region.
The network was formed during the first lockdown and all our events so far have been online. This has been important to stay connected but difficult to develop relationships and have a good old chat! So it was wonderful to see everyone immediately connecting, seeing old friends and making new ones.
There was a lot to talk about!
Collectively we set the current scene and our challenges ahead. We then spent time discussing potential solutions and how we might begin to build a healthy, thriving creative ecology in the region. Arts Fundraising Consultant Sarah Gee was at the helm to guide us and we were joined by funders from National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Lottery Community Fund, SCVO’s Small Groups Development Officer and The Creative Chain.
After our delicious traditional fish and chip lunch there were opportunities for groups to talk to funders directly about their ideas for projects with our mini funding surgeries. These proved very popular.
With calls for “please can you do more events like this” we look forward to planning the next one!
“MUCH NEEDED! Thank you so much for an informative day. At this point I was feeling very lost and now feel supported by everyone’s experiences and knowledge”
“AMAZING! Great to connect with others in the arts community and share ideas. Thank you”
“Really good informative event with also space to chat to others and have thinking time too”
We’re planning more events in the future and will also be releasing details about our second fundraising fellowship scheme which pairs groups and organisations with an experienced fundraiser.
For further information about funding and fundraising tips please see the page here.