How Sunderland creatives can unlock grants of up to £5,000

A new strand of an arts support project has been launched, offering financial and mentoring assistance to Wearside’s creative practitioners and businesses.

Since 2018, Sunderland Culture’s Unlock programme has worked to grow the city’s cultural infrastructure.

Now, a new phase of Unlock has been launched and the Unlock: Creative Industries Support programme will have three strands:

• Unlock Creative Development Grant: between £1,000 and £5,000 grant to support development of their business or indirect safeguarding of jobs
• Unlock: Creative business mentoring: accessing targeted mentoring support by industry experts in areas that will support business growth
• Enterprise growth support: offering access to a tailored programme of networking activities, workshops and specialist advice.

The Unlock: Creative Development Grant is delivered by Sunderland Culture for the UKSPF Innovate & Grow Project.

The project is part funded by the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority and is managed in Sunderland by Sunderland City Council on behalf of the Sunderland Partnership.

The new grant programme will build on the success of the UKSPF Creative Development Grants which awarded a total of £54,000 to 33 creative businesses in the city in 2025.

Applications from creative businesses and practitioners working in glass and ceramics would be particularly welcome in this latest round of Unlock support.

Previous Unlock grant recipients have included much-loved, best-selling Sunderland author Glenda Young. Her Unlock grant paid for two mentors – a marketing professional and a business specialist.

Another recipient was Dead Good, an arts-based death education social enterprise based in Sunderland, run by sisters Katy and Lindsey Vigurs.

Their Unlock grant paid for the development of a paid membership website. It also enabled Dead Good to create engaging, educational content through a weekly mortality e-zine, and a bi-monthly podcast, further loosening their reliance on social media for marketing, sales, and engagement.

Recipient Helen Schell, an award-winning, pioneering artist based in Sunderland, specialises in space exploration and Moon/Mars missions. Helen creates large paintings, costumes and experimental books, inventing geometric optical illusions to manipulate colour, form and light.

Sunderland Culture Chief Executive Nick Malyan said: “The grant is open to all creative businesses in Sunderland. We would particularly welcome applications from creative businesses and practitioners who are working in glass and ceramics where the grant would support their retention in the city.”

How to apply for a grant

To be eligible for a grant, businesses must be registered within the Sunderland City Council local authority area; must be registered with HMRC, Companies House or the Charities Commission at the point of application and have been trading for at least 12 months and be able to demonstrate a track record of working in the city.

Start-ups must be able to provide a demonstrable commitment to start trading within six months of the award date.

For more information, or to apply for an Unlock Creative Development Grant, visit https://www.sunderlandculture.org.uk/projects-partnerships/unlock/#grant

Deadline for applications is Monday, July 27 at 9am For any queries about the programme, please contact: [email protected]