Liverpool Black History Month Creative Grants 2025

Culture Liverpool, the cultural department of Liverpool City Council, is pleased to announce the opening of applications for the 2025 Black History Month Creative Grants. This initiative is funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and will be an integral part of the broader BHM25 programme across Liverpool. 

We are looking for high-quality, creative and innovative proposals that acknowledge Black History (especially in Liverpool), but also celebrate the achievements of Black creatives and community heritage today.

We are looking for high-quality, creative and innovative proposals that acknowledge Black History, especially in Liverpool, while also celebrating the achievements of Black creatives and community heritage today.

Context:

Black History Month (BHM) is an annual programme of events held every October. It aims to recognise the contributions and achievements of individuals with African or Caribbean heritage, whose efforts and value may have been overlooked, ignored, or misrepresented.

As part of this, Culture Liverpool is inviting artists and creatives across the city to create or produce artistic pieces, events, or activities that can be showcased during Black History Month. These contributions will be included and promoted as events on the Liverpool Black History Month website. Black History Month aims to ensure that issues of race, racism, and the invaluable contributions of Black individuals and communities remain at the forefront of public consciousness.

Our theme this year links to the national Black History Month theme ‘Standing Firm in Power & Pride’ with a focus on the two core values: power and pride.

We want Liverpool’s 2025 programme to spark change and celebrate the resilience of our communities through a range of thought-provoking events, including dance, theatre, music, showcases, spoken word performances, exhibitions, community engagement and panel discussions.

Applications should support all or some of the UKSPF aims:

• Building a sense of pride for the people of Liverpool.
• Contributing to increasing life chances by investing in communities or place, supporting local businesses, boosting people and skills.
• Positive social impact.
• Supporting sense of belonging for both artists and audiences.

Grants Available:

We will award 4 to 5 grants, between the values of £2,000 to £3,000. In total there is £12,000 of funding available.

Awarded grants need to be creative and include new work, cross arts or a specific art form. They could engage community and or schools/young people.

Who can apply?

• Liverpool based artists / arts organisations or those that can demonstrate working with a Black community in the Liverpool City Council area.
• Freelance artists, small artist collectives or arts organisations.
• Voluntary/ community/ education groups, where you have a creative, high quality project proposal.

Those ineligible to apply include:

• CAIP funded organisations. However, we are open to freelance artists and other groups collaborating with these organisations
• We are unable to fund social, religious or political activity
• We are unable to fund refreshments or travel as part of the grant monies; but this can be within your overall budget

Things to note:

• Please do not apply more than once. Maximum ask is £3,000.
• These creative grants will sit as part of the wider programme for BHM25.
• Activity must take place in October 2025, but creation and community/ schools engagement can run prior to this.
• All projects should be completed and outcomes ready to report by the end of November 2025. We require a short report on what you have achieved, including monitoring and evaluation forms to be completed post event. Please take photo and video documentation where possible.
• Ideally the request will represent a contribution towards the overall cost of delivering a project or idea. Please outline what match funding you will be exploring and if you have any confirmed – this can include in-kind. (We appreciate this might be tentative but are looking to see efforts against match support).
• Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council reserves the right to make changes to this programme.
• If awarded a grant, you accept full responsibility for all health and safety, licensing and other legal matters that might impact your activities. Please consider if your event or activity requires any licenses, and/or TEN (temporary events notice) or other considerations.

What Makes a Strong Proposal?

• Artistic excellence.
• Creatively interesting.
• Artists of, or working with Black diasporas and in partnership with communities.
• There are elements that inform education or wider learning around Black History for our residents and audiences.
• Proposed plan to apply for match funding/ in -kind support.
• Marketing and promotion plan to ensure wider audience engagement. Successful applicants will link with Culture Liverpool for collaborative online listing and communications.

What you will need to include in your application includes:

• Name of artist/ group and contact details/ any social media links.
• Full address.
• Title of your proposal/ activity.
• A description of your Creative proposal/ activity/ event and how it meets the above criteria – and what will it achieve.
• A budget highlighting artistic costs, venue hire, staffing costs, delivery costs and any other costs as appropriate.
• Delivery plan (i.e. timescale of delivery, when things will happen).
• Amount requested.
• Total costs including any other funding or in-kind support you have secured for the delivery of the activity.

This grant funding has been made possible thanks to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Successful applicants will need to agree acknowledgement of this and use funding logos etc. where necessary. A short summary/ post BHM25 evaluation will also be required.

Click here to complete the application form

Please ensure you have read this document fully before applying. Any questions can be sent to cultureliverpool@liverpool.gov.uk, with the subject heading ‘BHM Creative Grant 2025’. We will do our upmost to respond within our capacity, but cannot guarantee this.

Timeframe:

• BHM Creative Grants open for applications – Thursday 15 May 2025.
• Applications close midnight, Wednesday 11 June 2025 – no late applications will be accepted.
• Funding application assessment – June 2025.
• Decisions made and applicants informed. Grant agreement issued and signed – end June/ early July.
• Marketing template submitted to Culture Liverpool for inclusion in the BHM25 activity on Culture Liverpool’s website (a link for this will be provided) – date TBC
• BHM programme – October 2025.
• Monitoring and evaluation – November 2025 – January 2026.

Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council reserves the right to close applications early in the event of high demand.