Frequently Asked Questions (text-only version)

FAQs

Q. Am I eligible for the service?

A. To use the advice service you must be resident in the London area (an 0207 or 0208 telephone number) and be out of full-time education.

We expect that you probably will have made one or two pieces of work, even if these have not been performed in public, and we require a show of commitment to professional development.

We cannot place work for you.

The service doesn’t support repertory companies or revivals of pre-existing plays.

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Q. What’s the best way to contact you?

A. Some queries can be dealt with on the phone.

If the issue is more detailed, we can make an appointment. The advice sessions last 50 minutes and take place at Oval House.

Please arrive on time.

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Q. Where is Oval House?

A. Here is a map

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Q. Where can I get money to support my practice?

A. The way to get money is to make good work.

In the scramble for funding this fact is easily overlooked. So concentrating on your practice - building a vocabulary, a language that is particularly your own - is very valuable.

As a practitioner if you are authentic, people will become interested in what you do and say.

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Q. Are you saying that there’s no money?

A. Inevitably as an emerging artist, there has to be some self-funding of your work. But these costs might be offset by joining together with other artists.

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Q Where do I look for people?

A. Try the e-lists at artsadmin, the New Work Network, ITC, PANDA, CreativeCapital and the message board here at OH.

Join every list, become part of a network, create visibility for yourself, see work and so become part of a dialogue around the issues currently being debated in theatre.

All this will help your practice.

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Q. How do I contact the Arts Council?

A. If you’re at the stage where you feel your work could receive public funding, you need to go to the Arts Council site or download a copy of the Grants for the Arts application form. If you need to get in touch, all their contact details are also online.

For a very comprehensive guide to arts funding in the UK go to the Department For Culture site.

Recent changes in the arts funding system have created a one door application process that encourages new practitioners, new methods and new ideas.

However the important thing is to build up a relationship with a particular department at the Arts Council – whether it’s Theatre, Combined Arts, Visual Arts or New Media.

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Q. How do I get to talk to someone at the Arts Council?

A. The best approach is to book a place on one of their Grants for the Arts funding surgeries that take place at regular intervals. Call the department you think is most appropriate for your work to find the next available opportunity.

For a list of officers in your department, look in Arts Council London’s Newsletter available as a PDF on their site.

It will help your funding application if you can create and sustain a dialogue with a particular department. When you are involved in an event, send details through to them – a postcard, an explanatory letter, an email. All this helps you in making a case for the relevance of your work – and so its necessity for funding.

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Q.What if I’m Black or Asian?

A. There’s many organisations out there - CIDA, decode, inIVA, Showhow - that all might be a starting point for a search, an enquiry or a dialogue. This year there’s also decibel funds for Black and Asian artists.

The BBC Roots page has interesting links to many useful organisations.

Or contact us to book an advice surgery at OH.

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Q. What if I’m Disabled or Deaf?

A. We offer full support to Disabled and Deaf artists. Working flexibly with practitioners at their own pace to realise projects. Our history at Oval House includes the presentation of work by Mat Fraser, Deafinitely and Graeae.

All information will be treated as confidential.

We have an ongoing dialogue with Shape . They can also provide support, professional development, training and advocacy.

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Q. I applied for money but got turned down – why?

A. It’s very important to create support networks that might be helpful for you should you get turned down in your application.

Friends, colleagues, family.

It’s useful to remember that the arts funding system is simply a way of getting money for specific arts projects, it’s not a way of validating your practice or yourself. Only YOU can do that.

I suggest that you look closely at the exact reasons you are applying for funding (it may surprisingly enough not be anything to do with money). Once you understand your own motivation, if you do get turned down, you will be in a stronger position to deal with it.

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Q. What are my chances?

A. Approximately 30 - 35% of Grants for the Arts applications are currently successful. If that sounds good, remember that 65 - 70% are unsuccessful. Also many bursary schemes have a higher failure rate.

Take your time. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it. Wait til the conditions are right.

But if you do decide to go ahead, apply yourself. It’s obviously better to put in something really strong than something you have written in a hurry. The writing of good application can take up to four weeks. Clearly you need to give yourself the best chance you possibly can.

To help you there are some useful information sheets available on the Arts Council website. In the dialogue box marked 'Search information sheets' type in 'assessment', 'capital', 'evaluation' or 'marketing' for Word documents on these particular subjects.

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Q. What do I write?

A. Read the Grants for the Arts guidance notes very carefully, especially ‘Aims’ (p.5) and ‘Writing Your Proposal’ (p. 10-11).

Work through your project clearly and methodically. Remember that someone may be reading your application who doesn’t know you, may have never seen your work and has no idea about your thoughts or motivations.

Does it make sense to a complete stranger?

It’s useful to bring in all the key points of your project on the first page of A4. So that someone coming to it for the first time can see exactly what it contains.

Also a good tip is to make it highly readable i.e. looking good on the page. First impressions count. If your application is poorly formatted or not spell-checked properly, you are not doing yourself any favours.

Remember it’s a competition and there are many artists in London all struggling for the same amounts money.

Good luck.

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Q. What about lottery money?

A. If your project has a community focus look at the Awards For All site.

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Q. If I don’t have the money - what’s the best way to start making work?

A. The only way to make work is to make it i.e. it only really begins to exist once it moves out of the theoretical and becomes part of the here and now.

It’s easy to come up with excuses to put off starting (‘I don’t have a studio’, ’I don’t have the money to put on the show’, ‘I don’t have the performers’) but it’s at that moment of beginning – choosing a sentence, a movement, a colour, a breath – that it becomes real.

And inevitably changes. But that’s ok. Because you are now in a process that’s taking you somewhere, with all the energy that those changes can bring.

The only way to make work is to start now.

If the conditions aren’t right today, when will they ever be?

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michael atavar 2003