What is Housing Percent for Art?
What kind of projects do you support?
Where does the Housing Percent Art funding come from?
Can anyone take part in Housing Percent for Art projects?
What criteria do we need to meet to apply for funding?
Do we have to find match funding?
What is the minimum/maximum amount we can apply for?
What artform should we use?
How do you choose the artists?
I’m not very good at art, where do I fit in?
Are Housing Percent for Art projects just for young people?
We would like to do a Housing Percent for Art project on a particular area or
issue but we’re not sure where to start. What would you suggest?
What are the advantages of using an artist in a consultation project?
We want a new communal seating area, can you pay for it?
Can you do something to get the kids off the street?
Can you fund fencing to keep people out of our gardens?
Who pays for repairs and maintenance if the artwork is vandalised?
How do we apply for Housing Percent for Art funding?
Useful links and further information
Contact us
Housing Percent for Art is a service located within Bolton at Home, the council controlled company managing the Council’s Housing stock. We also serve the organisations of Bolton Community Homes, an umbrella partnership of 9 housing associations working in the Bolton Borough.
We work with communities to help improve their neighbourhoods through creative arts projects. We provide support and funding for projects that meet our criteria.
We have supported a wide range of projects in almost every art form. Projects have:
Click here for examples of the kind of projects we do or don’t support and some case studies.
Bolton at Home and Bolton Community Homes have made a commitment to spend a percentage of their capital budget on arts projects which will help to improve their neighbourhoods. This money is managed by Housing Percent for Art. The funding for your project will come from a different budget depending on whether your group is made up of tenants from Bolton at Home or one of the Housing Associations, but if you contact the Housing Percent for Art Team they will be able to advise you.
The project must involve people who live in community housing, that is either tenants of Bolton at Home or one of the Housing Associations that operate in the town. It can include people who do not live in social housing as well, but the majority of participants should be our tenants. We encourage maximum social inclusion, whatever the person’s circumstances, needs or concerns.
Click here to view the full list of criteria, as well as information about what makes a successful project. Please read these carefully and ask the Housing Arts Officer about anything you don’t understand. Remember, your project must have a community housing link, there must be a group of people willing to actively take ownership and manage the project, and it must involve local people participating in some form of creative arts.
Not necessarily, but depending on the scale of the project your application
is more likely to be successful if your group can find additional funding
from elsewhere or if you are willing to make a contribution from your own
funds.
Remember, Percent for Art funding can only be used for the art element of your
project. Very often we’re involved in a regeneration scheme where the art
work is just one element of a bigger project, for example to improve a
streetscape or develop a new community facility. Any other elements in the
scheme have to be paid for from other budgets (e.g. Local Community Panel,
Neighbourhood Panel Environmental budget, Awards for All).
If you need information about other potential sources of funding, ask your Housing Arts Officer who should be able to point you in the right direction.
There is no minimum or maximum amount of funding you can apply for from Housing Percent for art. However the amount requested must be appropriate to the project, and the project must be manageable. The majority of projects we support are awarded between £3000 and £10,000 funding from Percent for art.
It’s not just about painting. We work with musicians, dancers, video/radio artists, sculptors, painters and more. You need to decide what you want the project to achieve, and we’ll help you to find the right artform and artist to accomplish it.
Every project requires different skills and experience and so we advertise and recruit for each project on an individual basis. The Housing Percent for Art Team will lead on the recruitment process, but the steering group will be expected to play an active role in choosing an artist.
We’re using art, not teaching art. It’s all about getting people to communicate with each other, and you don’t have to have done any kind of art work before to be able to join in. Most people felt like this at the start of other projects we’ve done, but when they joined in they found the work exciting and rewarding.
We’ve done some great projects with people of all ages.
We could help you to undertake a consultation using an artist to get everyone’s views, and then collectively you can choose a scheme from the options that you’ve created.
Community artists are skilled in encouraging people to express their views in ways that are fun and enjoyable. By working in groups they can encourage people to start talking to each other about their different needs and interests. People generally find the creative part stimulating and rewarding.
No, not if you just want to buy seating from a catalogue. However, we can make a contribution to a project that involves you in the design of the seating area, and incorporates some environmental art work that makes it unique.
Yes, but you need to get involved too! Why not form a group with like minded residents and then apply for Percent for Art funding to work with the young people.
The first stage may well involve using an artist to consult with the kids and find out what they want. The Housing Arts Officer can then help you to come up with a project that satisfies both the young people and the residents, and you can apply for further funding from Percent for Art and other sources to take the idea forward.
No, our budget is not a security budget. However, we could contribute to a project that incorporated art features designed through community and school workshops into parts of the fencing.
Scheduled maintenance is built into the budget. There is also a separate budget to make good most vandalism.
Our experience demonstrates that when the local community are involved in the creation of an environmental art work, and there is real sense of ownership, the likelihood of vandalism is very small. However, there is no guarantee that vandalism will not happen. We would always encourage doing a project, provided that the right conditions are in place.
Read through all the information on this website carefully. Does your project meet all the criteria? If the answer is yes then contact the Housing Percent for Art Team on 01204 335114. A Housing Arts Officer will discuss your idea with you and talk you through the application form. We advise you not to fill in the application form until you have spoken with a member of the Housing Percent for Art Team.
If your group would like to apply for Housing Percent for Art funding but you are not sure what kind of project you want to do, then contact us and we can look at the options available to you.
An introduction to Housing Percent
for Art
Applying for
funding
Information
for artists
What kind of projects do we support?
Project case studies -
physical and
non-physical
artwork
Housing Percent for Art
UCAN Centre
Hatfield Road
Bolton
BL1 3BU
Tel: 01204 335114
Fax: 01204 335118
e-mail: housingpercentforart@boltonathome.org.uk
