Liberty Festival 2025 Open Call – Participatory Research & Development Grants

Introduction 

In March 2024 Wandsworth Council was awarded the title of London Borough of Culture by the Mayor of London. 

Our vision for London Borough of Culture is to harness the power of culture to transform our residents’ lives in terms of health, happiness and equality of opportunity. A key part of this programme is delivering the Mayor of London's flagship Liberty Festival which is committed to spotlighting and celebrating the very best of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists in Wandsworth and in London as part of a joyful, radically inclusive festival where everyone is welcome.

Liberty 2025 will take place in Wandsworth between 24 and 28 September.

This call out is for R&D Artistic Commissions. The decision on these awards will be made in January 2025 and the work is expected be carried out between February and April 2025.

Background 

• Liberty is the Mayor of London’s flagship free programme celebrating D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent artists, begun in 2003.
• Liberty was developed into a touring festival in 2018 and became embedded as a flagship event within the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture programme in 2019. Liberty took place in Waltham Forest in 2019, Lewisham in 2022 and Croydon in 2023. It will take place in Wandsworth in September 2025.
• Wandsworth Council’s Arts & Culture team works closely with Greater London Authority (GLA) colleagues, who manage London Borough of Culture; the Mayor of London’s Liberty Advisory Group, who support the development of the festival across the years; and the Wandsworth Liberty Steering Group, to ensure that Liberty 2025 is as far reaching and ambitious as possible.

What we are looking for

We are excited to receive proposals in any artform and for any target audience. We'd be especially keen to fund proposals which:  

• Take a thoughtful and/or innovative approach to accessibility
• Advocate for disabled people's rights
• Attract new audiences to disability arts
• Respond to our strategic principles for Liberty Festival 2025: improving access, including looking at digital means; increasing collaboration between D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists and organisations; advocacy that highlights issues/challenges for the public’s attention; increase opportunities and development to those that might not ordinarily take part.

More about the Participatory R&D Grants

We are keen to support disability organisations in experimenting and sharing new ways of working, collaborating and advocating for the sector through artistic collaboration. Six Participatory R&D Grants of £1,500 each offer opportunities for disabled artists and community groups to explore themes that are close to their hearts in new and innovative ways, with a view to develop socially engaged work for the festival.

This R&D work could be led either by disabled artists to work with community groups of their choosing, or by disability organisations to work with disabled artist(s) of their choice. This direct collaboration on advocacy and development of creative ideas will allow disabled artists to benefit from the trust and connection that community groups have already developed locally, and ensure access to professional artists to those groups. 

If you would like to apply but don’t know who to collaborate with, we would be delighted to signpost and broker connections between artists, organisations and community groups. Please contact us on [javascript protected email address] for support with this.

Who is eligible for this opportunity

This opportunity is open to both individuals and organisations where the creative lead is by a person who self identifies as d/Deaf, disabled or neurodivergent. It is open to practitioners working in any art form. Only one application will be accepted from each artist or organisation.

Who can apply

We welcome applications from arts organisations, disabled artists and freelance producers for the Participatory R&D Grants. 

We also welcome applications from disability organisations/community groups who have identified and approached a disabled artist(s) of their choice to collaborate with. 

All applicants must have the right to work or operate in England.

A note on budget

We are committed to fair pay. We recognise that both the arts and disability sectors often have stretched budgets that can result in unfair pay. We ask that you budget for your time carefully, fully reflecting your day rate and the time you will spend on the work. We encourage you to refer to sector guidance on fair pay, such as by Artists' Union England.

Additional access funding is available separately to support both access to applications and/or access to support the project. In the application form budget section, applicants will be asked to give figures for the access costs for the whole of their R&D proposal. This is to ensure that the fund can cover all costs. The request for additional access funds will not form part of the panel’s decision-making. Feel free to use Disability Arts Online’s Access Rider open template. 

If you would like to access funding to support you in completing an application please contact [javascript protected email address] to discuss your needs.

How to apply

To apply for the Participatory R&D Grant please complete one of the following by midday on 8 January 2025:

• Submit the online form: Liberty 2025 R&D Application Form
• Or email [javascript protected email address] with a completed word version of the application form (download the word version here)
• Or email [javascript protected email address] with the proposal as a captioned video document as either a YouTube or Vimeo link (please note that video files will be too large to email, and we are unable to access files shared via Google Drive, WeTransfer or similar file sharing sites)

If you need information about how to apply in different formats please get in touch with us at [javascript protected email address]. 

Indicative timeframe

Please note timings are indicative and subject to change.

Questions? 

Should you have any queries or reasonable adjustments in order to apply, please email [javascript protected email address]