Round 3 (2025 – 2026)
Axminster Heritage Centre: Axminster at War, (1939 – 1945) – Uncovering the Untold’ (£2,043)
This oral history project will capture the personal experiences and memories of the East Devon community during World War Two. Alongside preserving these vital narratives, this funding will enable a series of workshops to teach children and adults how to conduct their own oral history interviews, weekly community sessions for the sharing of memories from the war, culminating in an interactive exhibition and 30-minute documentary film.
The Beehive: We Are All People of Power (£1,450)
A month-long programme at The Beehive celebrating local climate action, featuring an interactive exhibition, creative workshops, film screening, and a Climate Conversations event, the programme showcases human stories behind Devon’s energy transition.
Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival: Percy Jackson: Greek Myths and Legends (£725)
Free family events throughout the festival themed around the children’s fantasy series hero Percy Jackson. There will be six cabins of structured activities, storytimes throughout the day and a Treasure Hunt, “Percy Jackson and the Secrets of Budleigh Bay.”
Grow Eat Do CIC: Stories of Us (£1771)
Uncovering the history and cultural heritage of the residents of Cranbrook through a series of 4 intergenerational, community storytelling sessions using the ethos and resources from Out Of The Box Stories, which will be recorded and archived for future generations.
Seaton Community Arts: Art to the Town (£1,344)
Project to identify unused and unconsidered spaces around the town of Seaton for the displaying of art. Through the purchase of frames, local artworks will be displayed across Seaton, including in businesses, community spaces, and the public realm, giving opportunities and initial resources for artists to show and sell their work.
Sidmouth Folk Festival: Free Folk for Families 2025 (£3000)
To support making all Children’s Festival workshops and events that take place on Peacock Lawn/Blackmore Gardens free entry and offering children (0-11) zero cost tickets to all other Festival events. Workshops include daily instrumental, song, and morris workshops for 5-8 years olds and 8 years and over, plus Bollywood dance and maypole dance sessions, crafting, Forest school, storytelling and lantern making.
Sidmouth Science Festival: Sidmouth Science Festival 2025 (£424)
To fund a variety of science-themed children’s art activities for local families and schools, “Exciting curiosity in people to explore Science in their lives”. Since 2012, the festival successfully engages the local community, with visitor attendance and school children’s participation increasing year on year.
Sidmouth School of Art: Confluence (£2,969)
The project will inspire and engage children and adults, connecting people with nature, recording the cultural heritage of the River Sid and what matters to local people. This creative project will promote sustainable behaviours to protect, conserve and enhance the river and its tributaries. Discovery workshops will explore threats to the river and its biodiversity, inform and create a series of collaborative artworks to be exhibited publicly promoting wider community engagement and awareness .
Tidelines: Rocks to Reef (£3,000)
Artists will co-create artistic responses to the science, heritage and practice of inshore shellfishing and estuary regeneration working with local people, inshore fishers and a shellfish scientist. Creative outputs will include a day-long public event celebrating shellfish and the estuary with workshops, talks, music, visual art and site-specific performance, a visit to a local primary school and youth group and sharing with online audiences.
Word Kitchen South West CIC: The Power of Place (£1,259)
A series of inspirational workshops with different ages, generating creative writing in response to the East Devon landscape – whether town, coast or country – leading to a printed anthology: The Power of Place – responses to the East Devon Landscape (working title) as well as spoken word performances. Creative sessions will be facilitated with Sidmouth College years 8/9, and the Sidmouth Oasis Café, as well as online sessions and social media engagement and call outs.
Yellow Mouse Studios Ltd: Animation Workshops for Young People in East Devon (£3,000)
Working directly with Libraries Unlimited, Yellow Mouse Studios will run eight x 3-hour animation interviews, weekly community sessions for the sharing of memories from the war, culminating in an interactive exhibition and 30-minute documentary film.
Round 2 (2024 – 25):
Alright Mate? CIC: Blind Spot (£1495)
Two performances of Blind Spot, a pop-up comedy show performed in a car, will be performed at the Dog and Donkey in Budleigh on 28 & 29 March 2025. The script was developed through interviews with men in Devon, using humour to explore some of the roadblocks that men face when trying to open up about their feelings. The public performances are used as a conversation starter to engage the wider general public, to reduce stigma & barriers to engaging with the arts and to normalise conversations about men’s mental health.
For the Love of a Railway: Celebrating the Legend of Lyme Billy (£2784)
A new visitor centre, previously an empty shop in Axminster, now hosts a model of the famous old Axminster to Lyme Regis Railway as its centrepiece. The grant will go towards creating the Lyme Billy Lounge – a flexible space that is capable of converting quickly from a work area to a comfortable lounge for presentations and meetings and will also ‘Celebrate the Memories’ – bringing many golden memories to the surface, ensuring that an important slice of social history is properly recorded and made fully accessible.
Sustainable Project Live CIC: SPL Community Radio (£2700)
This project will establish a community radio station to serve as a platform for local musicians and DJs to showcase their music and upcoming events, while also spotlighting touring acts performing in Seaton and neighbouring areas. Although the primary focus is to support the local music scene, the radio station will also serve the community: disseminating local news and information, and providing a platform for organisations to collaborate with the community and connect with a wider audience by engaging with residents. Operated by volunteers, the station encourages local people with ideas for shows to participate in the station’s activities.
Dreadnought South West CIC: East Devon Women and the Sea (£3000)
An opportunity for local women to learn how to make a podcast and audio content for digital broadcasting, exploring their relationship to the sea around them in Exmouth. A call out will be made in Exmouth to two initial groups as an early stage exploration for this work, including wild swimmers and climate change activists. There will be three open days for workshops, skills sharing, storytelling and sharing audio content. Listen out on Phonic FM Exeter’s Community Radio on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2025, where the stories will be shared.
DAISI: Arts Workshop Subsidy for Schools – East Devon
Daisi’s purpose is founded upon the evidenced benefits to children and young people of having the opportunity to work alongside a professional artist. Many young people do not have access to the arts either in school or in their local youth setting. This grant will support the delivery of seven workshops in visual arts and music led by local, highly experienced and inspirational artists to East Devon schools.
Sidmouth School of Art: Sidmouth Sensory Garden Outdoor Art Space (£2800)
This project is to create a new art space venue, featuring reusable gabion baskets to display micro artworks, and support costs of the first exhibition by JJ Waller of the Sidmouth Your Town My Town photographic collection. The exhibition will consist of portraits of community groups celebrating the diversity of civic groups who are the fabric of our community.
Villages in Action: Get Together (£2805)
Working with Honiton Memory Café, TRIP, Devon Music Education Hub and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the project will deliver 4 accessible daytime concerts for people with dementia and their carers through what are considered the most miserable months of the year. Villages in Action will recruit emerging musicians aged 18-25 who will receive mentorship alongside paid performance opportunities to develop their musical practice to be more accessible, inclusive and influenced by audiences with dementia.
B Sharp: Journey Songs (£2958)
The project will enable children and young people in Seaton to write and perform their own original music, based on the culture and natural environment of their local area, with and for their community. The music will be inspired by a Seaton Tramway ride, and bird migration at Seaton Wetlands with support from Tramway volunteers and East Devon education rangers. Children, workshop participants and Seaton Acapella community choir performed the pieces at Seaton Tramway on 24 October 2024.
One Small Barking Dog: Exmouth Film Festival (£1430)
Funding will create an exhibition of local archive films, “Exmouth on Film” about the town, alongside film posters / memorabilia from films and TV shows filmed in Devon, hosted at Ocean, Exmouth 16 – 20 November 2024 as part of Exmouth Film Festival.
Four of Swords: Immersive Theatre School (£1225)
Building on the success of last year’s Immersive Theatre School at Beer Quarry Caves, this funding will create x3 bursary placements for young people who would normally be unable to access the activity due to their socio-economic backgrounds, offering a unique activity to develop their skills in theatre and art.
Sidmouth Folk Festival: Free Folk for Families (£2000)
For 2024 all the Children’s Festival events at Peacock Lawn/Blackmore Gardens will be free. 100+ workshops bringing young people together creatively, some of which progressively lead up to main stage showcases and engage with the wider festival (2– 9 August). The aim is to make the festival more affordable to local families and creatively engage with more young people.
Creative Beings CIC: Biocycles By The Grove (£3000)
“When the giant tree falls in the forest, it lets in light that spurs a thousand seedlings.”
This integrated arts project through workshops, soundscape and dance explores how an ending can be a beginning. Movement workshops will take place in Poltimore House Gardens on 27 + 28 August 2024. This pilot project will develop and test a creative intervention / provocation that can then be refined and scaled-up for touring around East Devon in 2025 and beyond.
Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival: Words on Wildlife (£1680)
Free, family fun offered in and around the mini marquee during the festival weekend (21- 22 September,). Celebrating this year’s theme of wildlife, come and discover a range of activities for all ages based around nature and the natural world. There will be craft with artist Anna Fitzgerald, storytelling with Jo Earlam, facts to discover and the chance to plant your own seeds and test your knowledge of our wonderful world of birds, insects and animals. Drop in – no need to book!
The Lympstone History Society: Lympstone Legends (£1000)
“About the village, by the village, for the village.”
A specially commissioned, community musical with dramatized narration, based on the rich and varied history of Lympstone village over the past 800 years. This will be performed in June 2025.
Telling Our Stories: Artist Commission (£1350)
Telling Our Stories aims to unearth Honiton’s multicultural heritage with stories, and interviews. This funding enables an artist commission to run schools’ workshops in Honiton library to create an artwork/s, inspired by the collection of stories. It will be presented at the final project exhibition at Thelma Hulbert Gallery in November 2024.
Sidmouth Science Festival: Sidmouth Science Festival 2024 (£1000)
“Exciting curiosity in people to explore Science in their lives”
The festival (4- 13 October) inspires and educates the community about how science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) disciplines impact our everyday lives by integrating art, music, comedy and drama with serious technical events.
The Arkham Dispatch: Devonshire Shadows: a Lovecraftian mystery game evening (£3000)
The Arkham Dispatch is a thrilling mystery subscription leading to a Lovecraftian-style adventure set in 1930s Devon. Monthly subscribers receive a mysterious envelope with clues and puzzles to reveal a chilling historical tale. Funding will enable a “play-test” prequel to a longer game blending in-person and digital experiences for local residents and gamers. Participants will play and help develop a unique game tailored with local East Devon references. The project will connect local creatives with local audiences and allow networking opportunities for local role-playing, gaming community.
Round 1 (2023 – 2024):
Chhaya Collective: Ophelia [£2,990]
In collaboration with Plastic Free Exmouth, gathered materials from beaches will be repurposed into costumes for Chhaya’s new outdoor dance theatre and live music production. Ophelia; a resiliently hopeful, feminist reclaiming of Hamlet will be performed outdoors at Exmouth Community College. Processional sections of the work will be performed as part of Plastic Free Exmouth’s weekly beach cleans in March 2024.
The Community Waffle House CIC: Community Gamer [£2,856]
In partnership with local games company Beacon Games, this project will build on an existing pilot to reach young people through games clubs and events and tackle loneliness within the gaming community.
Jess Magill (Exmouth Town Council): Magpies Festival of Thrift [£2,000]
In partnership with Sideshore CIC, this new festival from 2nd – 9th March, will celebrate, demonstrate and facilitate upcycling, repurposing, mending and re-using, with a series of pay-what-you-can workshops, free activities and a family fun day, exploring skills and ideas for fixing old items or turning them into new ones, and creating community along the way.
Paddle Boat Theatre: Music Making with Deaf/Special Education Needs Young People [£1,500]
12 music workshops with PaddleBoat artists, freelance musicians & SEN young people at The Deaf Academy and Mill Water School culminating in a special celebratory end of term performance.
Seaton Gateway Theatre: New Signage Noticeboards [£1,200]
New units to be built by the Beer Men’s Shed will be enclosed accessible units with solar power lighting to replace the signage at the front of the building that is not fit for purpose.
Sidmouth Coastal Community Hub CIC: Peace Garden Mural Project [£3,000]
A new mural for the Dissenters Hall Peace Garden co-created with over 20 user groups. Once in place, the mural will be visible from Sidmouth High Street to residents and visitors.
Sidmouth School of Art: Sidmouth On Sea – Save Our Seas, Winter Lights Festival ’24 [£3,000]
A brand new free community event for Sidmouth, 9 – 17 February over 5 evenings. Light installations made using recycled materials, will highlight environmental sustainability encouraging individual and collective actions to combat the climate crisis.
Sidmouth International Jazz Festival: Workshops 2024 [£2,970]
The 2024 festival will take place 23 – 27 May, and funding will give free access to a range of live music workshops including a Rhythm & African Drum Workshop and Gospel Choir Workshop.
Sleight of Hand Theatre: A Silent Era – Diverse Local Filmmakers [£3,000]
The making of a creative film documentary from archival footage celebrating the history of filmmaking in the region and promoting the creation of brand-new theatre piece “A Silent Era”, which celebrates the contributions of women filmmakers to the history of cinema. Screenings will take place in Sidmouth, Honiton and Seaton with Q&As as well as an East Devon wide competition, judged by East Devon filmmakers and film academics.
Tidelines: Overwintering [£3,000]
Overwintering builds on Tidelines’ Sustainable Tourism leaflet: Wider Than a River – a guide to the Exe estuary from local people, which offered different ways to look at, experience and value the Estuary throughout the year. Experienced artists will learn about the estuary’s wild inhabitants including overwintering birds with South East Devon Wildlife nature wardens and RSPB bird expert/artist Tony Whitehead and share this through sound, song, audio recording and participatory performance.
Wendy Van der Plank (with Stockland Parochial Church Council): Stockland Past and Present [£1,000]
In collaboration with local historian and author Bryan Drew, the project will gather photographs, footage, documents, and stories from the community, then curate it for the Stockland Past & Present exhibition in March. The culmination of the exhibition week will be a concert featuring Devon folk musician Jim Causley, which will include tunes from Stockland fiddle player Fred Pidgeon on Saturday 16 March.
Whimple History Society: Display Improvements [£869]
The purchase of two new display boards about the Hogarth Puppets and Muffin the Mule (the puppeteers who created Muffin the Mule lived in Whimple, where they had a puppet theatre and put on shows nationally and internationally). Additionally, the purchase of a five year licence to show a film clip of wassailing the apple trees in Whimple in 1927 to show in the Heritage Centre.
Word Kitchen (with Dunkeswell Youth Club): Word Kitchen East Devon [£1,484]
A literary and performance project, encouraging a range of people to find and share their voices and stories and discover the pleasure and value in not only writing and sharing, but also hearing live, spoken word prose and poetry. The project will be delivered through 2 open mic events at Brook Kitchen, Budleigh, and 1 writing workshop; 3 creative writing and performance sessions at Dunkeswell Youth Club, culminating in a community celebration sharing.
Youth Arts & Health Trust – Supporting Young People’s Mental Health Through the Arts: Cranbrook Art Club pilot [£3,000]
A pilot community youth arts offering to improve social engagement, connection and belonging by using arts activities for developing confidence, creative skills and wellbeing through a series of taster sessions aimed at young people in years 6, 7 and 8 at Cranbrook Education Campus & Cranbrook Community Hub. A fundraising strategy will also be created to sustain this offer.