How would you celebrate curiosity? How would you enhance people's every day? How could you transform a public space with your ideas?
What we're looking for
We're looking to programme between 5-8 submissions to be part of the Rochdale Borough Festival of Ideas in March 2024.
Whether it's a workshop, an intervention, a mural, a digital installation, a performance or an activity - we challenge you to think outside the box, consider collaborations and be creative.
You might be a community group, artist, business, co-operative, STEAM collective, sports group, technology start-up or another organisation with a great idea.
Ideas chosen as part of the festival programme will be for our Everyday Innovation strand, which is delivered in partnership with The Culture Co-op, the borough of Rochdale’s Creative People and Places Programme that is funded by Arts Council England.
Ideas can come in a range of scales - we're equally interested in Ideas which are smaller in scale but have a big impact, as much as we are about Ideas which require a bit more capacity and resources.
However, at its core, your idea must tie into one or more of our key themes:
- Imagine: nurturing imagination, encouraging to ask questions, and world-building through creative exploration.
- Create: sparking creativity, encouraging you to learn new skills, and being part of building something.
- Discover: celebrating curiosity, exchanging ideas, exploring something new, and gaining new perspectives.
How to submit your idea
If you think your idea fits the bill, we'd love to hear from you.
To submit an idea, you'll need to let us know:
- A clear outline of your idea, and how it meets the festival's aims and themes (400 words maximum) This should include any information on specific intended audiences.
- Whether your idea should take place once, or multiple times or days across the festival.
- Any access requirements or thoughts.
- An introduction to yourself (300 words maximum, including any useful links to your website or previous work).
- Any suggested ideas where it could take place - this could be types of location rather than exact suggestions. You do not need to have a location confirmed to apply.
- A breakdown of your budget tied to delivering this idea Including all fees, delivery costs and any material costs.
- You can submit a PDF or digital document, a voice note or a short video - both no longer than 6 minutes.
Deadline for submissions
The deadline for submissions is 5pm, Wednesday, 20 December 2023.
The festival team will then meet shortly after to discuss submissions and get back to you if there are any initial questions or further info needed.
Shortlisted ideas will be notified by early January 2024.
Terms and conditions
- You can apply for between £300-£4,000 to deliver your idea. If you have additional funding, or support in kind - for instance, a venue, workshop space, or equipment provided at no cost - please let us know in your application.
- You must be based in the borough of Rochdale or the Greater Manchester area. If you're based outside this area, you must be partnering with an individual or organisation based in the borough of Rochdale or the Greater Manchester area.
- You must have valid Public Liability Insurance which covers the activities your idea delivers. If you don’t have this, please factor this into your budget.
- The funding is not available for overheads, upkeep or benefiting a small group of people - for example, you cannot apply to this fund for repairing a broken goal in a sports playing field, or buy materials for an art group to use just in their weekly class. If you aren’t sure whether you’re on the right track, please get in touch.
- You'll need to consider how your idea can be accessible to as many people as possible. You don't need to include audio description and British Sign Language as we are currently scoping these across the festival.
- We're looking for new ideas - we won’t be looking to programme things which are already happening as part of your regular work or activity, we challenge you to think outside the box and consider how you can apply the festival’s themes into what you do.
Festival of Ideas: information session
2pm-3pm, Monday, 11 December 2023
The festival team will be holding an online session over Zoom for anybody interested in applying.
You can hear more about the festival, see some inspiring examples of work and projects, and have a chance to ask questions.
If you can’t make this date, please get in touch and we’d be happy to arrange a one to one.
Similarly, if you are looking to apply but perhaps need pairing with an organisation, business or similar, please get in touch and we can help match make.
About the festival
Taking inspiration from the borough's rich heritage whilst remaining focused on the future there will be a blend of hands-on and digital programming.