Arts Project Grants

Spiltmilk Dance
Project: Bloom
Bloom is a participatory performance project for older adults, including people living with dementia. The show combines live music, poetry, and dance to celebrate seasonal changes, bringing the outdoors inside. Audiences are invited to sing, move, and play along, encouraging gentle physical activity. Following a successful 18-venue pilot in Spring 2025, Bloom will tour six care settings in Warwick District for the first time. Funding supports building new venue relationships, strengthening existing partnerships, and fostering long-term engagement and co-created creative activity in care settings.

ARC - Achieving Results in Communities 
Project: Land Art for Baby Loss
Led by Dr Kate Rumbold, this trauma-informed project supports people affected by baby loss during pregnancy or shortly after birth. Sessions in ARC’s award-winning community garden use natural materials for temporary art, combining mindfulness, art-making, and reflection over tea. Five monthly sessions for bereaved parents, plus taster sessions for families and healthcare professionals, provide emotional support, healing, and a safe creative space for expression, connection, and wellbeing.

ILEAP 
Project: Beat to Your Own Rhythm 
A weekly inclusive arts project for vulnerable adults with additional needs, providing dance and music activities often inaccessible in mainstream cultural spaces. Sessions are held during term time at The Kenilworth Centre and offer safe, structured, and welcoming activities adapted for all abilities. Participants experience Bhangra, African drumming, and other global traditions, developing confidence, cultural awareness, and community connections. The project reduces social isolation, supports mental and physical wellbeing, and strengthens a sense of belonging.

Otra Cosa Network
Project: Bodies That Cross Borders: Body as Territory
This community-centred, arts-based project explores how Latin migrant women experience space, safety, and identity through their bodies. Participants engage in body-mapping and storytelling workshops, creating visual “maps” of significant places, emotions, and moments from migration journeys. Participants work with artists to transform stories into creative outputs such as illustrated body maps, textiles, photographs, symbolic objects, or recorded narratives. The project culminates in a public exhibition or online sharing, fostering dialogue, challenging stereotypes, and raising awareness of migrant women’s lived experiences.

Arts Development Grants 

Leon Finnan
Project: Development of a New One-Person Play – R&D
Funding supports research and development of a one-person play exploring insomnia, anxiety, and social oppression, designed for affordable touring. The project integrates low-tech projection and innovative staging.
R&D Phase: Writing, storyboarding, staging exploration, rehearsals, and a work-in-progress sharing at Leamington Town Hall with audience feedback.
Impact: Provides professional development, supports a neurodiverse freelance artist, enables a sustainable tourable piece, and prepares an Arts Council bid for the next phase.