The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced the first nine projects to receive funding from his Culture Seeds initiative. The fund will eventually total £1 million to support community cultural projects throughout the capital.

Culture Seeds is a part of the Sadiq Khans draft Culture Strategy, Culture for all Londoners. The grants are for funding grassroots community arts, culture or heritage projects including visual and performing arts, digital art, craft and making activities, filmmaking and film screenings and much more.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “Every corner of London is overflowing with cultural talent and imagination, yet it can be extremely difficult for small grassroots organisations to access funding for cultural projects in their communities. As Mayor I have made it a priority to support London’s creative potential. Whether you need help to put on an art workshop, grassroots drama shows or start a new singing group to bring your neighborhood together, the possibilities are endless. My new Culture Seeds fund are small grants which will make a big difference to projects across the capital.”

The first £40,000 of Culture Seeds funding has been awarded to:

• Learning Through the Arts (Brent) who will run ‘Cultural Connections’, arts workshops for users of Ashford Place community centre to inspire and promote friendships.
• Polkadots on Raindrops (Bromley) for their photography project, ‘Belonging’, which is aimed at young people facing exclusion from mainstream education.
• Sir Hubert von Herkomer Arts Foundation (Camden) whose Queens Crescent summer holiday project will provide healthy meals and training in music, visual arts and photography to young people from Queen’s Crescent Estate.
• Chantelle Clarke (Hackney) whose project ‘Echoes of Love’ will use monthly writing and storytelling workshops to help BAME women living in Hackney to share stories.
• Quernmore Road Summer Festival (Haringey) who will host a one-day festival featuring music and dance performances, workshops for children and a performance from the local community choir.
• Will Ashcroft (Islington) whose ‘Whitecross Street Mandala Project’ will unite residents of Whitecross Street Estate to create hand-painted wooden benches and planters.
• Congo Great Lakes Initiative (Kensington and Chelsea) whose project ‘Soul of Art for our Beloved Ones’ will offer visual arts workshops to volunteers who helped in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower Fire.
• Bisoye Babalola (Lambeth) who will run a summer school for local children aged 14-17 introducing them to the creative industries.
• Redbridge Music Lounge (Redbridge) for ‘Music of the Mind’ which will take music and singing activities to people in residential care around the borough.

As a part of the Mayors commitment to support culture in London, the initiative will carry on providing grants of £1000 – £5000 until May 2020. If you would like more information or to apply, visit: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/arts-and-culture/current-culture-projects/culture-seeds