SCAN Sparks Seed Fund recipients!
As part of our SCAN Sparks project to support underserved grassroots arts communities during the Covid-19 pandemic, we launched a seed fund for collaborative, self-initiated visual arts activity led by Black people and People of Colour in Scotland. After receiving an exceptionally wide range and high standard of applications, we have awarded funds of £2,000 to the following four recipients:
- Natasha Ruwona, who will be exploring the experiences of Black people in nature through a walking group
- Listen Gallery, who will be collaborating with Sunshine Books to host a one day public event providing Iraqi food, esoteric books, and improvised sound performances
- Wacera Kamonji and Tanatsei Gambura, who will be creating new work for a black women-led festival in Berlin
- Sahar Abdulla, who will be working with Syrian refugees in Aberdeen to create a recipe book.
The successful applicnants were chosen by a panel consisting of artists Ashanti Harris and Sekai Machache, Director of ArtNight Helen Nisbet, and artist and educator Ranjana Thapalyal.
We developed the SCAN Sparks Seed Fund after working with artist Sekai Machache as an Artist Policy Officer to help us understand the impact of Covid-19 on BPOC creative practitioners in Scotland. We wanted to learn from cultural workers across the country to understand what they needed to thrive. You can read the report that Sekai produced after working with us here, and you can listen to the podcast series she created as part of the project here.
The SCAN Sparks Seed Fund was developed after Sekai worked with a focus group to understand how we could support grassroots events and activities as the contemporary art sector rebuilds after the impacts of the Covid pandemic. It is part of the wider SCAN Sparks programme, which explores how the cultural community can support grassroots activism and equalities-focused working.