Arts charity The Genesis Foundation has awarded over £400,000 in grants to 41 projects being run by UK-based creative freelancers. The grants have been allocated through the foundation’s Kickstart Fund, which aims to help creatives work through and recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Kickstart Fund will ultimately hand out £1 million in grants to freelancers in the creative industries, many of whom have suffered from both a lack of work and a lack of financial support during the pandemic.
Since it was established in October 2020, the fund has so far supported projects by the Bristol Old Vic theatre, the National Ballet, the Young Vic Theatre in London, the Whitechapel Gallery, The Culture Collective and the Blueprint Theatre and Film Company.
The Genesis Foundation says that the first batch of grants have been distributed to projects involving 500 freelance professionals. The grants are for £10,000 each and include mentoring to help freelancers work in the creative and arts sectors which, the foundation says, have been “transformed” by the pandemic.
Genesis Foundation Founder and Chairman John Studzinski CBE commented: “I am overwhelmed but not surprised by the ambition, creative spark and energy of the Genesis Kickstart fund proposals and projects.”
“The original logic of Kickstart in ensuring freelancers remain engaged and active is very visible in these important, wide-ranging and innovative initiatives.”
“We want to help freelancers get back on their feet, and we are delighted that the projects are so diverse in art form, region and ethnicity. After 20 years of the Genesis Foundation, our original nurturing and mentoring framework is now more relevant than ever before.”
