What is the session about? 

The Factory Seminar – A Beginners Guide to Funding and Grant Applications with BCB’s Artistic Director & Chief Executive Clare Wood is back due to popular demand! This is an online Factory seminar for artists and creative businesses who need an introduction to gaining funding from trusts and foundations. Clare Wood will draw on her wealth of experience working in the cultural sector in fundraising and leadership roles. This event will provide clear advice and tips ranging from where to find out about opportunities to how to manage an unsuccessful application. The session will include resources for identifying opportunities, further reading and advice. 

What will this session cover? 

• Trusts and foundations in a UK context 
• Assessing whether trust or foundation support is right for you/your project 
• Where to look for opportunities 
• How to assess which is the right opportunity 
• How to identify your idea 
• Writing your application 
• What happens next 

Who is the session for? 

• People who feel unsure about how to write a funding application 
• People who have submitted funding applications but haven’t been successful yet and need some advice to improve 
• People who find funding application guidelines difficult 
• Students or people who are early in their career and want to start building a tool kit to help manage a sustainable career 

Who is delivering? 

Clare Wood – Artistic Director & Chief Executive, British Ceramics Biennial 

Clare started her career at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, co-curating, funding and promoting exhibitions by artists including Gillian Ayres, Richard Long and Anthony Whishaw. She then moved to Stockholm supporting the city’s museums and cultural organisations in event and exhibition delivery. 

On returning to the UK, Clare ran the Manor House Museum and Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering before joining The Culture Trust Luton. In 2013, Clare joined the team at MK Gallery to work on delivery of the £12m redevelopment that doubled the gallery spaces and introduced facilities to transform the accessibility and appeal of this iconic Milton Keynes cultural organisation. 

In early 2018, Clare became Chief Executive of Re-Form Heritage, a national charity that supports communities through the regeneration of their historic buildings, based at Middleport Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. At Re-Form Heritage, Clare worked closely on the campaign to reinstate bell founding to the famous Whitechapel Bell Foundry site and has been instrumental in the transformation of a terrace of former pottery workers’ houses in Stoke-on-Trent to create a new heritage attraction, studio and workshop complex, a publicly accessible archive service and a community centre. Clare began her role leading BCB in August 2021. 

Where does it take place?

Factory Seminar – A Beginner’s Guide to Funding and Grant Applications takes place online via Zoom. The link will be emailed to you once you’ve registered.

How to book?

Book your free ticket via the individual event pages on the BCB website. Visit our What’s On page to see what other events are happening.

Online Access:

• In advance of each event, we aim to share an overview of the event. This may include preparation tasks for the participant.
• We will enable captions for anyone to access during the event and download them after
• We will record each online event so you can re-watch it
• We will share a resource pack after the event. This will include summary notes, relevant links shared during the event, the event transcript and the event recording

If there is anything we can do to support your participation in the event, please email rhiannon@britishceramicsbiennial.com to discuss what we can put in place for you.

What is Factory?

This workshop is proudly run as part of the creative business support Factory, which is a partnership between Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, Staffordshire University, British Ceramics Biennial and ACAVA. The programme is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Visit our main Factory page for more information about other opportunities and workshops run through Factory.