The Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development aims to enable organisations to explore ways of working that will help them to adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances. The overall budget for this fund in the financial year 2021/22 is £7 million.
Please note, this fund is now solely for organisations – individuals can apply to the refreshed Open Fund for Individuals.
Creative Scotland is committed to ensuring that people are supported to develop excellence and experimentation in a wide range of arts and creative activity, reflecting Scotland’s diverse and dynamic cultures. We want to ensure that the experience of the arts and creative activity benefits as many people as possible across Scotland’s communities and places. We have a key role in ensuring that Scotland’s creative workforce and businesses have opportunities to develop, evolve and flourish.
We launched this fund in March 2020 in a difficult context. The disruption of COVID-19 was a situation without precedent. The creative sector continues to face significant challenges. We understand that you will be considering the impact of this emergency and its after-effects on what you do.
You may be thinking about new ways of working. If you aim to reach people with your work in performance spaces, for example, you may be looking at new ways to achieve this. You may be looking at ways to stabilise your existing activity. You may be reimagining what you do, and as part of this process, you may wish to take creative risks.
This fund is designed to support you to sustain your practice in a changing world. We are asking you to tell us what you want to do, and how it will help you and/or others in the months and years to come.
You can apply for between £1,000 and £100,000, for activity lasting up to 12 months.
There are no deadlines for this fund – you can apply year-round.
Please read the guidance documents below for full information about this fund including eligibility, and then download an application form and follow the instructions within.
The Open Fund FAQs are available as a PDF download or can be accessed through the FAQs section of the website.
If you need more information please contact our Enquiries Service using one of the methods outlined on our Contact Us page.
