Creative Future is thrilled to announce we have been awarded funding as a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) for 2023-26 from Arts Council England.
Our organisation was founded in 2007, established by two creatives with lived experience of some of the barriers the artists we work with face. Our mission from day one has always been to support talented people who lack creative opportunities and are underrepresented in mainstream culture.
62% of the people we work with face two or more barriers to access and of these, 33% report three or more issues. This significant investment and recognition of our work from Arts Council England will allow us to discover and nurture even more talented creatives across the country and ensure we can continue to widen access and opportunities for underrepresented people.
Over the next three years, with NPO funding our proposed plans will make life-changing differences to both the people we work with and readers interested in new, diverse voices. Our work is targeted at those who need it most; we have some ambitious plans ahead of us and we can’t wait to start working on them with this new support from Arts Council England.
We recognise there are many arts organisations doing incredible work in our sector who have been unsuccessful in this round of NPO funding. It is a tough landscape to exist in and we stand in solidarity with you all. We will continue to work with our creative partners and communities across the country to drive the change the whole sector needs and to make the arts more diverse and representative of the world we live in.
“We are immensely proud and grateful to have been chosen as an NPO for the first time in Creative Future’s history. The funding will build on what the organisation has already achieved in making writing more diverse, and accessible, and supporting underrepresented writers nationally. We would like to thank Arts Council England for their continued belief in Creative Future and look forward to working with them to deliver a fantastic programme over the next three years.”
Nicole Finnan, Chair of Creative Future“The Creative Future Writers’ Award was what did it—without that, I wouldn’t have gone any further.”
Tom Newlands won a Creative Future Writers’ Award in 2020 and was selected for a place on our 2021 Next Up development scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy. Prior to that he’d been writing for less than a year and found much of the support and advice out there financially out of reach. He now has a two book deal with Phoenix Books/Orion after securing an agent and receiving offers from numerous prestigious publishers.“Simon Powell and I established Creative Future to showcase the voices of those who were traditionally ignored. We knew many talented people were not getting published or exhibited because of discrimination and health and economic barriers. It was a long held dream that one day we’d become an NPO and those voices would gain the recognition they so deserve. The Creative Future team have worked hard for many years to gain this status and I can’t wait to see what amazing things the organisation and those it supports, does next.”
Dominique Delight, Co-Founder of Creative Future“As one of the charity’s founders I’m delighted that the excellent Creative Future team has continued to deliver on its vision and mission, now recognised by its recently awarded NPO status.”
Simon Powell, Co-Founder of Creative Future
