We’ve only gone and made a bloody board game! After years of researching and experiencing freelancer precarity and burnout, we’ve stepped out from behind our spreadsheets to design ‘Frazzled Freelancers’ - the fast paced roll-and-move board game for burnt out freelancers! Game Night coming soon 🔥

Are you a Black, Asian or ethnically diverse theatre maker in the North of England looking to make ambitious new work? We’ve just launched the £2 million Theatre Breakthrough Fund - find out more 👇 buff.ly/MjwaSsk Image credit: Shadows In Different Shades by Oladipo Agboluaje © Smart Banda

Parents in the arts sector work in a system that fails to support them adequately. Here, producer and new mother Nora Laraki shares her experience of taking a baby on tour.

Pause: A Self-Care Support for Producers is a resource for producers navigating burnout. Incl. 8 commissioned writings with personal insights from producers, practical reflections + useful signposting. producergathering.com/resource/pause-for-producers/ @the-uncultured @producergathering

ACE NEWS: if you're planning to go in for the new R&D NLPG, they will be adding a new dropdown next week so you can say you'd like your application to be considered for this strand, instead of the general NLPG. It's already technically open, but there is no way to denote it's for that strand now...

I wrote a small thing for this. Burnout is hard and tricky to find the edges of. Instead of looking directly at it I wrote about those bits around the sides.

ICYMI ✨

You can apply to this funding now, or if you would prefer, you can wait for the next round of Developing Your Creative Practice next April. Take a look at the information on our website to learn more about this temporary change, and why we’ve made it 👇 buff.ly/AYO3QFu

NEW FROM ACE: "We’re pausing the next round of DYCP, until April 2026 + using this year’s remaining DYCP budget to immediately launch a ringfenced £7.5 m Research&Development (R&D) fund within National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG)." www.artscouncil.org.uk/dycp#t-in-pa...

NEW RESOURCE! Pause: A Self-Care Support for Producers is a new free resource for producers navigating burnout. Incl. 8 commissioned writings with personal insights from producers, practical reflections + useful signposting. Co-produced by @the-uncultured.bsky.social @producergathering.bsky.social

Funding update 📢 Our National Lottery Project Grants strands for Major Projects, Place Partnerships, and Touring will be fully reopened on Monday, 20 October. Access Support is available now. Find more information in our Q&A 👇 buff.ly/uPUmaK6

Are you a live artist or practitioner eager to explore how and why you make? Applications for Do It Together are now open! tinyurl.com/49ce24w4 ⏰Deadline to apply: Wednesday 12 November, 5pm #DIT2026

This is what is says on the tin, but also: paying artists, creatives, producers & crew fairly & on time would deflate the false profit margins of *every* creative industry. Paying workers fairly wd "kill" industry *as an endless profit machine*. Not defending AI, saying this problem is baked in.

ACE funding: If you're applying for Arts Council England under £30k Project Grants and use our templates, make sure you download the newest version rather than using an old one as we've updated it to reflect the new form www.the-uncultured.com/resources-ar...

Thoughts and tips on the seemingly unnamed ACE under £30k application portal...

Will share some thoughts and tips later on - just submitting an application now...

💥 Applications are now open for our Open Awards 2025/26! 💥 We’re offering £413k to disabled artists in England, Scotland and Wales. Got a bold, brilliant idea that’s ready to shake things up? Applications are open now until Monday 29 September 2025. Find out more and apply: bit.ly/4mHxqRZ

We are very sorry for the disruption this causes, and we are working as quickly as we can to accept applications again. Please see more info here: buff.ly/8gdTBxY (3/3)

In the meantime, we are building a bespoke digital application form for the fund, which will be open again by mid-September at the latest. (2/3)

Grant management system update: We continue to make alternative solutions available to users, while our usual system is unavailable. As part of this, we are pausing new applications to National Lottery Project Grants. (1/3)

ACE Grantium update: Project Grants temporarily closed, opening the programme again no later than mid-September 🤯 www.artscouncil.org.uk/creative-mat...

Update on Grantium: It will remain unavailable to users until next Weds, 6 Aug. We've shared more information in relation to our different funding programmes online today. Once again, we're very sorry for the frustration this is causing. Info here: buff.ly/iOZtzqQ

An update before this evening: We’ve now emailed all DYCP applicants directly with their funding decisions; and we have confirmed a new deadline of 3pm Monday 4 August for Creative Foundations Fund and Libraries Development Framework funds. More info here> www.artscouncil.org.uk/creative-mat...

We have emailed applicants awaiting their decision for Developing Your Creative Practice to confirm we plan to let them know decisions early next week.

Update: 5pm Friday 25 July Grantium is still not available for users. We’re continuing our work to resolve this issue over the weekend. We’re very sorry for the frustration that this has caused people.

Pretty savage that DYCP applicants got an email saying their decision letters are ready but Grantium is down so no-one can see them 😵‍💫

Are you a working class freelancer in the arts? @RTYDS has created some financial resources to help artists from low socio-economic backgrounds navigate self-employment & benefits. Check out their advice leaflet & @turn2us_org Benefits Calculator: www.rtyds.co.uk/financial-resources

Join us on 15 June for a webinar covering Access to Work renewals and reconsiderations. You'll get tips for navigating the process, including negotiation and making a complaint. If you can’t attend, you can book to receive the webinar recording. 🎟️ disabilityarts.online/events/acces...

ICYMI ✨

*new blog post* The Levelling Up for Culture Places list is no longer part of ACE delivery plan: 56 locations that were not included in Priority Places list are no longer ‘underrepresented places’. Including St Helen’s, Eastbourne, Harlow, Torbay and Solihull. Linktr.ee/theuncultured

I’m profoundly sad to say that as of today, I’ll no longer be able to do my job as co-artistic director of #Touretteshero because of a recent decision by #AccessToWork to cut my support by 61%. Read & share this post, the hardest I've had to write: www.touretteshero.com/2025/05/23/a... 1/4

On what is a really difficult day, here are some resources for our trans friends and allies. Solidarity 💜 goodlawproject.org/resource/sup...

Applying for DYCP? We’ve got a template for that ✨ www.the-uncultured.com/resources-ar... Always best to write your app outside of the portal cos Grantium is not user friendly.

Arts Council England DYCP access requests open today, can take 5 working days to sign off. But wow look at that Project Grants lead-in time now 😵‍💫 Factor this in if you’re hoping to apply any time soon!

Could you do with £10k for some humanities or social science research? We’ve opened the call for our small grants. These are assessed using partial randomisation - after applications meet our quality threshold awards are allocated at random, reducing bias www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...

ICYMI

DYCP new round announced! Round 23 Opens: 24 April at midday Closes: 22 May at midday Decisions announced: 24 July 2025 www.artscouncil.org.uk/dycp If you’ve made 2 unsuccessful or 1 successful application to DYCP since 05 August 2021 (Round 11), you won’t be eligible to apply to Round 23.

#CreativeClimateLeadership is a commitment & invitation to us all! Today we’re excited to introduce our new podcast - Conversations on Creative Climate Leadership hosted by musician & zoologist @itslouisvi.bsky.social & our Climate Justice Lead @farzja.bsky.social >> juliesbicycle.com/CCL-podcast

The @bectu Guide to Good Practice on Touring Productions is a ‘living document ’that will be adjusted & refined as trends across the industry become clearer & as better examples of good practice evolve into standard practice. members.bectu.org.uk/advice-resou... #FreelancersMakeTheatreWork

I just found out that my book on musical theatre is one of the many many books pirated by Meta and other AI companies

UPDATE: Changes to our National Portfolio Today we've shared our National Council's decision to no longer launch our next Investment Process in April. Instead, we are recommending to Government that our current National Portfolio extends to 31 March 2028.

Do this! The Uncultured are incredible 💞

Access support for Arts Council England: If you're Deaf, disabled, neurodivergent or are experiencing poor health, & are looking for support to submit an ACE Project Grants app, we have some capacity this Spring! 🌸 ⬇️⬇️⬇️

📢 Announcement! Contact adopts a permanent four-day-week. Read more here: contactmcr.com/news/contact...

It’s time to demystify the publishing industry! Publishing Industry Day IS BACK on Sat 26 April! Early Bird Tickets: Fri 28 Feb. 3 DAYS TO GO! Explore: newwritingsouth.com/publishing-a... Sign up to hear 1st: newwritingsouth.com/subscribe/ #Publishing #GetYourBookPublished #BrightonPublishing

Until September… www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Are you a working class freelancer in the arts? @RTYDS has created some financial resources to help artists from low socio-economic backgrounds navigate self-employment & benefits. Check out their advice leaflet & @turn2us_org Benefits Calculator: https://buff.ly/3VKiTto #FreelancersMakeTheatreWork

Free online talk + Q&A: Join CN Lester - artistic freelancer and trans researcher, educator and activist - to discuss how we can work towards true trans equality across the artistic sector. Thu, February 20, 5-6:30pm. Reserve your spot: https://buff.ly/40Ldh3U

Producers - Last few days to apply for this open call out ✨