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Apply to the Endangered Crafts Fund

Gail McGarva

Gail McGarva, the endangered craft of traditional boat building

Deadline: Friday 22 March 2024, 5pm

Thanks to support from the Pilgrim Trust, Radcliffe Trust, Sussex Heritage Trust, and private donors – Heritage Crafts invites craft practitioners and organisations in the UK to apply for small grants to fund projects that support endangered crafts (the craft must be listed as endangered or critically endangered on the current Red List of Endangered Crafts). A number of grants are ringfenced for East Sussex, West Sussex, and Brighton and Hove, but those outside of these areas are also eligible to apply.

Heritage Crafts published the fourth edition of its groundbreaking Red List of Endangered Crafts in May 2023, the first research of its kind to rank the UK’s traditional crafts by the likelihood that they will survive into the next generation. The report assessed 259 crafts to ascertain those which are at greatest risk of disappearing, of which four were classified as extinct, 84 as ‘endangered’ and a further 62 as ‘critically endangered’. As a result of this alarming threat to our cultural heritage, Heritage Crafts set up its Endangered Crafts Fund in 2019 and 59 grants have been awarded nationally in that time.

Applications may, for example, include:

Implementing changes that will ensure the longer-term viability or survival of heritage craft skills, for example:

  • developing a new, innovative approach to heritage craft skills;
  • investing in more efficient machinery;
  • developing new routes to market;
  • exploring the use of sustainable alternative materials while maintaining the heritage character of your practice.

Direct and indirect skills transfer, for example:

  • taking on a trainee or apprentice;
  • preparing to teach courses, including the creation of training materials;
  • online or video content to support skills sharing and documentation;
  • specialist tools and equipment to facilitate training.

Continuous professional development, for example:

  • acquiring the knowledge and skills required to run a successful small business;
  • acquiring the advanced craft skills or allied craft skills necessary to make a craft practice more viable, e.g. through a training course or self-directed learning.

In addition to the funding you will receive support from the Grants and Awards Officer and rest of the Heritage Crafts team to ensure that your project is a success. This will be unique to your project but it could include mentoring support, business support or signposting to other opportunities.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

See the projects that were successfully funded in the previous application rounds


Supported by: the Pilgrim Trust, the Radcliffe Trust, the Sussex Heritage Trust and the generous support of individual donors and Heritage Crafts members. Previous donors include the Ashley Family Foundation, Essex Community Foundation, the Dulverton Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund, the Benefact Trust and the Ernest Cook Trust.