Arts Council England are reopening their Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) Fund from March 14. You can apply for up to £12,000 to develop yourself as an artist.

Unlike most funds for artists, there’s no requirement to deliver any kind of final outcome, like a show or a piece of finished work. A good way of thinking about DYCP is that it’s for people who need time to focus on their individual artistic practice, but who couldn’t otherwise afford to quit their jobs – this lets you focus on developing your art while also letting you pay yourself to cover a loss of income.

Or, more broadly, that there’s a roadblock in your creative practice which can only be resolved through dedicated paid development time.

This often involves creating new work, but can also involve research, networking, shadowing, working with mentors… it’s a very flexible programme that’s helped launch a lot of artists’ careers.

It’s also a very competitive programme – so a successful application will need to demonstrate the impact your development will have on yourself as an artist, but also how they can expect your work to contribute to culture across communities in England. Have a look on the Arts Council’s website, and give the guidance for applicants a read, as well as examples of successful proposals: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/dycp

To apply, you must:

• be based within (live in) England

• be at least 18 years old

• have one years’ creative practice experience outside a formal education context (so you can’t count your time with us at NCCA)