East Sussex Arts Partnership

1. Overview

Funding

The East Sussex Arts Partnership has a small number of grants of up to £1000 available. These grants are for arts projects which support the East Sussex Cultural Strategy priorities:

  1. Create an environment where great cultural experiences are available to everyone to enhance their quality of life
  2. Create an environment which enables the cultural and creative economy to expand and enhances our ability to attract and retain other businesses
  3. Develop and promote well packaged cultural tourism offers which celebrate the identity of East Sussex, raise its profile and attract more visitors and businesses to the County

In addition, ESAP aims to support early career professionals to foster new creative activity in East Sussex. If you would like support, please use the contacts section to get in touch with your local officer.

Eligible areas for activities are: Lewes District, Eastbourne Borough, Rother District and Wealden District.  If you have questions about what this means for your next application, please do not hesitate to get in touch at Arts.Officer@eastsussex.gov.uk .

Criteria

  • organisations can be awarded up to a maximum of three grants in any three-year period
  • at least 50% of activity must be in East Sussex, excluding Hastings
  • in line with ESAP's aims to support early career professionals, we prioritise new applicants for funding
  • activity must be arts based
  • activity must not start before the grant panel meets (please see timelines)
  • applicants must be a non-profit distributing organisation
  • activity must be open to the public, be an arts event and have a clear public benefit within East Sussex
  • activity must take place in the district areas of Rother, Wealden, Lewes or Eastbourne
  • activity must be a time limited project
  • we ask that you have at least 50% cash match funding for your project

More specifically, ESAP grants support:

  • Art exhibitions
  • Art and music events
  • Arts groups
  • Festivals
  • Performances

ESAP does not support:

  • Ongoing costs for running an organisation
  • Activity that has already happened
  • Capital costs
  • Projects that are for profit
  • Activity that supports one person, such as prizes or equipment
  • Fundraising activities, or volunteer recruitment
  • Activities promoting religious or political beliefs. However, we welcome applications from faith groups for community activities that are open to the whole community, regardless of religion.

Deadlines

Please make a special note of the decision dates as we ask that activity does not start until after the panel meets and your application will be rejected if it starts before.

  • 5 January 2026 (decision 29 January 2026)
  • 5 May 2026 (Decision 21 May 2026)
  • 7 September 2026 (Decision 1 October 2026)
  • 6 January 2027 (Decision 28 January 2027)

You can contact the relevant officer who will be happy to discuss your idea with you and check you are eligible to apply.

When you are ready to submit your application, please send to Arts.Officer@eastsussex.gov.uk

Contacts

For advice, please contact your district representative (see below)

Please send completed applications to the Arts Officer team at East Sussex County Council

Arts.Officer@eastsussex.gov.uk

For projects in Rother District

Lisa Simpson

For projects based in Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough

Sarah Last 

For projects based in Wealden District

Melanie Powell

How to Apply

Before applying, please review the East Sussex Arts Partnership Grant Guidance Notes  [61.4 KB] [docx]to see if your project is eligible.

To apply for an ESAP grant, please complete the East Sussex Arts Partnership Application Form. [53.1 KB] [docx]

You may wish to apply for other grant funding; while any ESAP grant awarded will not dependant on you securing other funding, the ESAP grant is only payable once your project has been successfully completed.