Arts & cultural Accelerator Programme for sustainable practice opens for applications

Arts Council England and Julie’s Bicycle have opened applications for the second cohort of their Accelerator Programme, developed to foster enterprise, innovation and future thinking on climate and the environment across the arts and cultural sector. From April 2020 to September 2021, successful organisations will receive support through tailored expert mentoring, personalised one-to-one support and a training programme adapted from Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership course. The first cohort is currently developing a range of creative projects on a variety of environmental issues including green touring models, new products generated from festival waste, developing roadmaps on city-wide carbon reduction, and introducing a circular economy approach to artistic process and production. Applying to the Accelerator Programme is a three-stage process: Expression of Interests must be submitted to Julie’s Bicycle by 7 June 2019, following which a selection of organisations will be invited to attend a half-day workshop in July 2019 in either London, Manchester or Birmingham to further develop their idea, with submissions of full proposals by 14 October 2019. Francis Runacres, Executive Director of Enterprise and Innovation, Arts Council England, said: “We developed the Accelerator Programme with Julie’s Bicycle to help shape the arts and cultural sector’s ambitious thinking around environmental sustainability into deliverable projects – and the enthusiasm, dedication and creativity that the first cohort have brought to the programme is truly inspiring. I’m delighted that we will be supporting ten additional projects tackling environmental issues and look forward to seeing what fresh perspectives and innovations the second cohort brings.” Alison Tickell, Director, Julie’s Bicycle, added: “The Accelerator community – some of the most ambitious Arts Council England funded organisations taking climate action – has generated new and enterprising thinking from arts and cultural organisations as a result of the challenges, fresh ideas, peer support and powerful connections that have been made across disciplines. Action is contagious and the Accelerator community represents new and vital leadership that needs to scale across the arts and culture."  

from UK Fundraising http://bit.ly/2PKi2FV