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Don’t delay: deadline looms on latest round of the Arts Council England’s “Developing Your Creative Practice” funding program

By John Freeman on November 23, 2023

Arts Council England - Developing Your Creative Practice

Arts Council England is running a funding program called Developing Your Creative Practice, to support individuals who are cultural and creative practitioners and want to take time to focus on their creative development – which includes comic creators.

Comic creatives create art and literature, and qualify for funding.

The scheme is run four times a year and individuals can get up to £12,000 to help with their creative practice. The next deadline is the 14th December midday 2023, but be aware the registration process can take up to ten days before you can apply for funding, so if you would like to pitch for funding, then you should start your application as soon as possible.

To help make sure you’re paying yourself fairly, especially during the cost of living crisis, Arts Council England recently increased how much you can apply for. They are also aware Developing your Creative Practice is a very competitive fund, so they are making some other changes too, so you can decide when is the right time for you to apply, and to give everyone a fair chance of receiving funding.

• Head over to artscouncil.org.uk/dycp for details of how to apply

Do note that if you have applied for this program before and were unsuccesful, there are restrictions on applying again

With thanks to Bobby Joseph, UK Comics Laureate, for highlighting this

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.