Funders and Awards
Details about the lovely people who fund Heads Together Productions, Chapel FM Arts Centre, UNION: The Northern School for Creativity and Activism; and our community radio station East Leeds Community Radio. Over the years we have had a wide range of funders who have supported our vision and work. Below are details of our current major funders.
Thank you to all our funders...
We have been funded by Arts Council England since 1986. We are currently a National Portfolio Organisation which supports our long-term work to bring high quality art and arts training to our community. Arts Council England also supported our purchase, renovation and expansion of the Chapel FM Arts Centre building.
We have received National Lottery support since 2015 and are currently in receipt of funding for our “Home From Home” 3-year project through the Reaching Community Fund.
Leeds City Council supports our work through its Cultural Investment Programme’s Grow:Revenue scheme which enables us to bring a wider range of arts and culture to our community of Seacroft and wider East Leeds.
Igen Trust supports our community arts and media training work, especially using radio to help young people to develop skills through our “Radio Waves of Change” methodology.
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation awarded us a “Test and Explore” grant to pilot a community arts academy for emerging artists committed to using creativity to achieve social change: the UNION programme. In 2022 they awarded us a 4-year grant for further development of the UNION programme through their Arts Access and Participation fund.
We have received funding for specific projects from Go Higher, the #iwill fund, the Pears Foundation and the Ann Maguire Arts Education Fund (grants which are managed by the Leeds Community Foundation) and most recently Strategic Fund support to deepen our residency programme for other arts and community organisations.
Capital Development
Apart from our revenue funders would also like to acknowledge the £1.46 million we have been awarded for both phases of the capital development of Chapel FM Arts Centre:
Time to celebrate...
In 2015 Chapel FM won a Pro Yorkshire Award from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors for outstanding achievement in providing a building that directly benefits the local community.
For our inclusive approach to working with young people, Chapel FM was one of only ten organisations nationally to be recognised as an Arts Award Good Practice Centre in 2017/18.
In 2018 Chapel FM was winner of the Child Friendly Leeds Award for “Inspiring Creativity and Culture through the Arts”. Read more here.
In 2018 Chapel FM was runner up in the Grassroots Yorkshire Gig Guide Award for Outstanding Media Organisation
Our work with young people with respect to an inclusive approach to delivering Arts Awards was recognised in 2019/20 and again in 2020/21 with a Trinity Champion Centre award from Trinity College London who oversee the Arts Awards scheme
And we are also proud to be part of...
The vision of ArtWorks Alliance is simple: better participatory arts work.
- Build a strategic, partnership network with a leadership model that encourages decisive, collective action
- Enable partners in the network to come together to create and run strategic activities
- Enable partners and others to share ideas and deep thinking, and to influence the arts and non-arts sectors