Come and learn more about our ground-breaking 4-year project designed to empower the creativity and enterprise of our local City of London Community. Find out more about the impact of this work through an exhibition, live workshops and a panel discussion unpicking the politics of power.
Since 2020, the Imagine Fund has supported 65 projects and initiatives, distributing over 100K in grants to local people and unincorporated associations within the City of London. Funding is allocated by panels of local community members who work together to design the process and make decisions around the projects that benefit their local community.
Funded projects have ranged from local family-friendly events, LGBQTIA+ film nights, and craft workshops, to educational projects such as a Chinese reading group and creative workshops for diaspora from the Global South around climate awareness raising.
The Imagine Fund is a participatory grant-making scheme rooted in the values of anti-oppression, radical generosity, community care and prioritising growth. The fund's mission is to create more equity by sharing power, redistributing resources, and offering the support and skills to reduce barriers for local people to access funding in the arts and cultural sector. The programme supports a panel of people with connections to the local community to make collective decisions around funding creative or cultural projects relevant to the City of London community.
You can find out more about our grantees, and their funded projects here
During our final year of this programme, we have worked in partnership with our local partners to provide these community engagement services and projects below:
- A panel of 9 local people trained
- 23 local projects to get funded this year
- Creative trips and workshops for grantees around topics including inclusion and accessibility, taking care of yourself, and producing and project management.
- We used transparent money management systems to show how grant money was distributed equitably.
