22/23 Diversity and Inclusion Fund Awardees

Edinburgh has recently been recognised as the most diverse city in Scotland according to Scotland’s Census 2021. This Fund aims to ensure this diversity is encouraged, facilitated, and celebrated.

The Diversity and Inclusion Fund seeks to support the work and narratives of ethnically diverse artists and creatives which have been developed and delivered through multi-art form collaborations and partnerships. The resource of £100,000 in total offers an opportunity for exploration and innovation to ethnically diverse artists and creatives who wish to share their voices and celebrate their heritage, explore intercultural dialogue and provide spaces and experiences for diverse residents to engage with arts and culture by including different languages, forms of creative expression, and engagement models.

A total of 34 applications were received requesting support from the £100,000 Diversity and Inclusion Fund. 12 were submitted by Lead Artists in collaboration with Associate Artists; 22 - by Lead Artists in partnership with Arts Organisations.

The independent fund panel comprising of Andrea Baker (Opera Singer), Fin Ross Russell (Island Life Productions Founder), Lewis Hou (Culture & Wellbeing Community Network Scotland, Science Ceilidh), Ranuli Palipane (Capital Theatres Youth Advisory Board member), Veronique AA Lapeyre (PERO & Project Zanana) assessed all eligible projects and recommended 13 project proposal for funding. The projects submitted represented a variety of activities, including music, dance, visual arts, theatre, multi-art events and research and development, planned to be hosted across the city.

The list of funded projects can be found below:

Filmmaker Olga Niekrasova & Media Education: Shadows - a story of the separation of a mother and her daughter due to the forced deportation of children in the Ukrainian war  [Grant award amount: £9,955.17 | Wards: Gorgie / Dalry, Corstorphine / Murrayfield].

Dance Artist Himadri Madan & Theiyā Arts: Theiyā Arts Youth - nurturing the next generation of South Asian classical dancers in Scotland [Grant award amount: £10,000.00 | Wards: Pentland Hills, Fountainbridge / Craiglockhart].

Music Artist Bee Asha Singh Landa & EHFM: Gitika - a multi-art forms project using music, poetry, filmmaking and performances to express the reality of growing up a mixed-race queer woman in Scotland [Grant award amount: £9,881.55 | Wards: Southside / Newington, Leith].

Digitial Marketer Sarah Azari & Spit it Out: Saffron Cherry - a bi-monthly variety show using music, dance, and drag performances by queer and trans people of colour [Grant award amount: £2,000.00 | Wards: Southside / Newington, Leith, City Centre].

Multidisciplinary Artist Khadea Santi & Edinburgh Art Festival: MACS - after-school Club and Summer Carnival-inspired Workshops with Edinburgh Art Festival, artist Khadea Santi and Community Wellbeing Collective members [Grant award amount: £9,980.00 | Ward: Pentland Hills].

Multidisciplinary Artist Ligia Auter & Axé Boom Boom: Folklore Beyond Water Borders - a project that includes storytelling, music and movement to dive the participants into the magical Brazilian and Scottish folk universes [Grant award amount: £9,831.00 | Wards: Pentland Hills, Fountainbridge / Craiglockhart, City Centre].

3D Designer/Maker Jason Morenikeji & Ceramist Caitlin Bowbeer: The Pendulum Slip Trail Machine - design collaboration: Blending physics and art...and a lot of creative inspiration [Grant award amount: £5,000.00 | Wards: Craigentinny / Duddingston, Forth].

Musician Aref Ghorbani & Art27 Scotland: The Others Project - artist in residence Shatha Altowai, brings musicians from Scotland together with musicians and a visual artist with lived experience of displacement, to collaborate on new and exciting compositions [Grant award amount: £9,949.00 | Wards: Southside / Newington, Leith].

Musician Mark Agbi & African Caribbean Society of Scotland (ACSS): Jazz in the Burgh - a night of Live Music Arts and Culture and the launch of the compilation EP [Grant award amount: £9,766.50 | Wards: Inverleith, Leith, City Centre].

Visual Artist Sequoia Barnes & Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop Fellowship - a research and development project that generates and shares knowledge, new sculpture and public engagement opportunities [Grant award amount: £10,000.00 | Wards: Forth, Leith].

Filmmakers Armando Bautista García & Itandehui Jansen: Itu Ninu - post-production of a feature film addressing climate change from an Indigenous perspective and screening it to audiences in Edinburgh [Grant award amount: £4,935.00 | Wards: Citywide]. 

Musician Fay Guiffo & Theatre Director Iain Reekie: Music in Dramaturgy - a mixed-race Classical musician engages in 2 weeks of research and development, in collaboration with a dramaturge and a music producer [Grant award amount: £4,512.00 | Wards: Inverleith, Leith, City Centre].

Theatre practitioner Hannah Low & F-Bomb Theatre: BLOSSOM - research, development and writing of a new multi-artform play by emerging Chinese-Scottish playwright Hannah Low, with mentoring support from F-Bomb Theatre [Grant award amount:£4,189.78 | Wards: Portobello / Craigmillar, City Centre, Leith].