Funding

Overview

There are two main sources of funding from the French government for British arts projects involving France: Our grants (from the Embassy) and grants from Culturesfrance, the French national agency for international cultural exchange based in Paris. The French Arts Office of the Embassy coordinates both these grants programmes so when you make a request to us, we will consider whether we allocate money from our own budget AND whether we make a request on your behalf to Culturesfrance.

Please read the following guidelines below carefully to determine whether we are able to assist you.

Who can request support from us

Both our grants and those of Culturesfrance are ONLY given to organisations and artists based in the UK. Proposals for support must therefore only be made by organisations and individuals based in the UK.

Kinds of projects we support

Art forms:

We support projects relating to all art forms (visual art, theatre, contemporary music, dance, heritage) EXCEPT:

• cinema – please contact the French Institute for cinema projects
• literature and social sciences – please contact the literature and talks department
• popular music (incl. jazz, world, folk, chanson française, electronic, etc.) – please contact the French Music Export Bureau
• education and linguistics – please contact the education (including projects geared towards children) or language department

Our priority is to support CONTEMPORARY arts projects. It is unlikely we will be able to provide financial assistance if your project does not involve contemporary art in some way (living artists, collaboration with a French arts organisation…)

Type of project:

we are interested in hearing about any projects that aim to develop a link between France and Britain. This could be through a collaboration with a French arts venue, by bringing a French artist or company to the UK, etc.

About our grants

Embassy grants are modest (generally between £500-£3000, depending on the scale of the project). They are lump-sum payments and can be used for any type of costs relating to the project. Grants from Culturesfrance can only be used to cover international transport costs.

How to request support

Please check with the information above whether your project fits our criteria and then, if you think you are eligible, send us an email describing your project. Please include as much information as you have available – venues, dates, artists, any partners, likely budget…

We will then reply to let you know whether your project fits our criteria, to suggest a meeting or to request further information.

If your project fits our criteria, we will ask you for a short proposal including the following information:

• dates
• venues
• any other partners involved
• details of artists involved
• budget with detailed breakdown of expenses and income (including costs of international transport if relevant). You must show in your income how much you are requesting from us

Timings

Our financial year runs from January-December and we make our programming decisions for a given year in September-November of the PRECEDING year and will inform you of whether your application has been successful in December. Therefore you must tell us about your project by September of the year preceding the year in which it will take place. Eg if your project is taking place in January 2008, you must contact us before September 2007.