Expand

Do you have an immersive arts project in development?

Apply for £50,000 plus tailored mentoring and expert support to expand your work and present it to an audience.

Ideal for...

The Expand strand of funding aims to:

  • provide support to significantly progress existing projects or prototypes
  • bring well-developed concepts to fruition with comprehensive support
  • enhance audience engagement and reach
  • consider access, diversity and inclusion relevant to the project.

Focus

Successful applicants will be supported for up to 12 months (ie for the duration of their projects) with:

  • bespoke mentoring from Crossover Labs, the Immersive Arts partnership and network
  • support to develop and implement their project
  • opportunities to enhance and scale the impact of their work.

Timelines

  • January 2025 Shortlisted applicants notified for interview
  • February 2025 Awarded artists announced
  • March 2025 - February 2026 Projects carried out

 

Visit our Youtube account  to watch our Funding Webinar and Inspiration Day.

Why Apply?

Are you an artist with a curious mind who’d like to push the limits of your practice? We hope that’s why you’re reading this, and why you will apply.

You could use the funding for:

  • planning, researching and developing, 
or delivering, a new immersive arts project
  • attending residencies, relevant events and workshops
  • accessing training and other forms of support
  • buying materials, software licences 
and other technical tools
  • paying artists, technologists and other collaborators
  • hiring studio, rehearsal, exhibition or event spaces
  • researching and integrating accessibility options 
for audiences’ access needs
  • making audience testing or exhibitions more accessible, diverse and inclusive (by, for eg, paying for BSL interpreters, accessible formats, captioning, etc).
  • marketing your project and developing your audience (Expand and Experiment only)

See the Funding Guidelines 
for a full breakdown of eligible costs.

Eligibility

You are eligible to apply for an Immersive Arts grant if you:

  • are an individual artist, creative 
practitioner or creative technologist
  • are an arts-based organisation, small group 
or collective (10 people or fewer for Experiment and Explore, up to 50 people for Expand)
  • are based in the UK
  • are aged 18 or over
  • have a UK bank account in your own name.

See the Funding Guidelines for more information.

How to apply

To apply for a grant, you’ll need to create an account in our application portal. We recommend reading this 
step-by-step guide before you start your application.

Please apply for the full amount stated for each strand.

When to apply

Applications for Round 1 of funding are now closed. Round 2 of Immersive Arts funding will open in Spring 2025.

Sign up to our newsletter to find out more.

Explore and Experiment applicants will be notified
in February 2025.

Anyone applying to Expand will be contacted in January 2025, when shortlisted applicants will be invited to an interview.

Apply now to Explore, Experiment or Expand.

Access support

You can apply by audio, video or text, and 
in English or Welsh, or British Sign Language. If you need to apply in a different format or require additional support (like sign language interpreters), then please just let us know. We may be able to provide financial assistance.

Requesting
access support
for applications

If you need this information in any other format, access support to apply, or have any other access questions, 
send us an email or call or text on 07123 456 789.

Note our phone is only staffed during daytime working hours – if you call outside those hours just leave a message and someone will get back to you.

The deadline for access support is 4 November 2024, four weeks before the application deadline, which gives us a bit 
of time to ensure you get the support you need.

Access support
for funded projects

We can provide additional funding to successful applicants to support a range of access requirements (eg, paying a support worker, scribe or sign language interpreter).

Mentoring and training support offered along with the funding can be adapted for those with access requirements and/ or caring roles.

For example the Development Labs run by Crossover 
Labs as part of the Experiment awards will have three alternative, flexible options:

  • Residential – one week (five days).
  • Online – five days spread over five weeks.
  • Relaxed track – ten half days over a longer 
duration in response to each cohort, with 
online and in person options.

Get in touch to find out more.

Have any questions?
Visit our FAQs page here

Submission Checklist

  • Watched our Inspiration Day Session or our Funding Webinar on YouTube?
  • Downloaded the Funding Guidelines & read the FAQs?
  • Downloaded the Application Form to work out your answers offline?