Bursary

Like many organisations, our income for 2020 and 2021 was severely curtailed. We have therefore suspended our bursary scheme for the time being, but hope to reinstate it in due course.​

The Crowborough Arts Bursary Award was launched in 2013 with the aim of supporting local artists to explore and develop their practice.

The scheme is open to practitioners from any field of the arts. Previous recipients have included classical and popular musicians, an abstract painter, a textile artist and a student at a prestigious London musical theatre school. 

A Bursary award could be used for:
  • Investment in specialist equipment or materials
  • A course to help develop skills
  • Studio time or a residential retreat

Currently the maximum amount that can be awarded is £500 per application.

Applicants will be asked to provide detailed information about their project and may be asked to attend a short interview.

Please contact Christine for further information using the form below.
Guideline for applications
Read through our guidelines and then fill in the application form. Give as much information and supporting evidence as you can. We may ask you to attend a short interview to help us asses your application. We’ll let you know (normally within 6 weeks) if your application has been successful. 

We want to keep it fast and simple, so that’s it! If you want to ask any questions before applying, please email Christine Roberts or call  01892 853159.
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Before completing your application, please read through these guidelines and consider your response to each question:
 
How will you prove that you are a serious practitioner in your chosen medium? 
You should be able to demonstrate your creative ability and commitment to your medium through a body of existing work.
 
How would the bursary, if awarded, help to develop you as an arts practitioner? 
You should be able to articulate what you are seeking to achieve in your creative practice. You should also be able to show the link between your existing work and the way in which an award would move you along the pathway to achieving your desired outcomes.
 
How will you evaluate the outcomes of your chosen activity? 
We would be interested to know how you evaluate your progress in your chosen field. For example, you might keep a journal recording your progress, showing both successes and how any setbacks have helped you to adapt your creative approach.
 
How will you demonstrate the outcome of using the bursary award?  
At the end of the agreed period, we will ask you to report back on what you have achieved with your bursary award. This could be by a display of work, a performance, a skill sharing session or any other method suggested by you and agreed by the awarding panel.
 
Could there be a community aspect to your developing work?  
Crowborough Arts’ brief is to build the arts in the area. If there is any aspect of your work that could benefit the wider community, please let us know. Examples might include the development of a community performance group, or a collaborative artwork to which members of the community are invited to contribute. ​

​Terms and Conditions 
  1. The CA Bursary is available to practitioners from any area of the arts, provided they live in Crowborough or the surrounding area.
  2. You must be at least 18 years old at the time of application. There is no upper age limit.
  3. You must be a current member of Crowborough Arts to be eligible and must have been a member for at least one year. 
  4. For 2020, a maximum of £500 may be granted to any single applicant, or to any single project, should more than one applicant be involved.
  5. A specific sum will be set aside for bursaries each year, running from the beginning of August to the end of July. Once this sum has been allocated, applicants will have to wait for the start of the next year to be considered for a bursary.
  6. The bursary cannot be used as part payment towards any further education costs, eg university fees.
  7. The bursary can however be used towards a specialist course, as long as it has a clear benefit to the applicant’s development in his or her chosen field of art.
  8. We will require proof of costings for your project and may choose to fund part or all of the sum requested, up to the maximum of £500.
  9. No application can be considered without a fully completed Bursary application form.
  10. The decision of the CA Bursary Panel is final.
Download our printable Bursary information booklet.
Previous Bursary Beneficiaries

Since its launch in 2013 bursaries have been awarded to the following members:
Alice Barnard has supported Crowborough Arts for many years, appearing in our shows as both an actor and a singer. Until the middle of 2018, she worked as a professional singer both in the UK and abroad. She now works with young adults with learning difficulties and has become interested in the role music has to play in their well-being. We paid for her to go on a short music therapy course and this has led to her being taken on as a trainee music leader for disabled children at Cecil Sharp House, the Folk Dance and Music centre in London.

Bursary awarded September 2019
Mary Harris is well known as the former facilitator for Crowborough Arts' life drawing and portraiture sessions. We're delighted to be able to make an award towards a specialist course at West Dean College, an institution internationally recognised for excellence in conservation and creative arts education.

Bursary awarded August 2017
Rebecca Lindsay
PhD student Rebecca Lindsay is currently studying for her PhD with the English Literature Department at Reading University. She was invited to give a paper at the International Research Society for Children’s Literature Congress in Toronto in July of this year. Her paper is on “The Real and Ideological Child”. We were able to help towards travel expenses for the conference.

Bursary awarded May 2017
Ashleigh Fisk is a fine artist who applied for assistance in purchasing equipment for her Art Foundation Course. A former pupil at Bennett Memorial School, Ashleigh is now studying for a degree at the prestigious Slade School for Fine Art.

​Bursary awarded June 2016
Alessandra Testai and Robin Jeffrey, a husband and wife duo, specialise in early and Mediterranean music and put their bursary money towards recording a CD.

Bursary awarded August 2015
Bethan Downing
A former Beacon Community College pupil, Bethan studied Musical Theatre at the Brit School and then gained a place at the Arts Educational Schools in London. Her CA Bursary contributed towards the kit she needed to continue her training. Bethan graduated in the summer of 2017 and joined the original cast of the West End Musical of Young Frankenstein.

Bursary awarded August 2014
Hannah Boxall is a young classical singer. She is currently a music undergraduate at the University of Bristol.  She used her bursary money to pay for instrumental lessons on the double bass.

​Bursary awarded August 2013
Alice Rose, a singer/songwriter, paid for the recording of a CD of her own songs with her bursary award. 

​Bursary awarded August 2013
​Deborah Tompsett, a ceramicist and painter, used her bursary to pay for a specialist course exploring abstraction in art and applying it to her own practice.
Deborah was overall winner in the Chaiya Art Awards,  held 29th March - 8th in April 2018 at the Oxo Tower on London's South Bank. She is exhibited a ceramic piece previously shown in Chichester Cathedral, entitled 'A Thousand Bottles of Tears ' ​

Bursary awarded August 2013