One of my main aspirations after graduating is to run workshops and events as part of my and Lysander’s organisation, Bugbyte. One of the main ways that we are pursuing this is by applying to funding and development opportunities. We have applied for quite a few different open calls and opportunities to date, many of which have come to nothing, but some of which have been fruitful, including the 2024 UAL Pitch-it competition, where we were awarded a bursary to pursue developing our organisation. This opportunity also led to us being recognised as one of UAL’s ‘50 Founders and Freelancers’. Some of the opportunities we have applied for are one-off funding and support to run a single workshop, and some are for longer programmes. We try to apply to a broad range of opportunities, but ones that we feel are relevant to our goals and that we think we would be well suited for. So far we have applied for funding and support opportunities from organisations including: UAL, Atlas Cinema, Shorelines Magazine, QYAC, The Southbank Centre, and ACAVA. My long term aim with this is to gain a broad base of experience running events and workshops, and to gain connections throughout London arts and cultural organisations which will help us to continue and grow our work as an organisation. Being two individuals that are very early in our career, I know that it is really important to gain as much experience and as many connections as possible, as well as to try and secure outside support and funding.
Applying for opportunities is a tedious, tiring, and often frustrating experience and I have had to learn to be very pragmatic and not get hung up on rejections. One of the main things that I have learnt is that there are many opportunities out there and part of the process is spreading a wide net and trying to apply to as many things as possible, whilst also submitting a thoughtful and well written application. I have also learnt the importance of organisation, and take a lot of care to document and plan along the way. For example, I and Lysander recently made a spreadsheet for the different opportunities that we already have or are planning to apply to.
From my experiences of working in the arts and the charity sector I know that applying for funding is just a fact of life and something that I will be dealing with for a very long time in my career, but for now I’m glad to be working alongside a good friend who shares my passion in pursuing this career path, and that I can split the work-load with.
