On community funding

This short two-minute video may just change your perspective on what’s possible at the moment, both for community-based projects and also for design creatives.

In this case, the project in question was Turner’s House in Twickenham, where together with House Manager Ricky Pound and architects MAA Associates we had designed and built a series of interpretation panels. (You’ll see these in the video.) These were part-funded by the Richmond-upon-Thames Community Fund.

Moving into the post-covid world with restricted budgets, it might be surprising to learn that there’s actually money ‘out there’ to help fund such community-based products. 

There are more schemes than you think, and for creatives, it’s a whole new area we should be aware of. Perhaps we can even add some extra value by using our skills to help organisations prepare compelling bids to help secure funding for projects.

Whatever the future holds, entrepreneurial creativity and exploring different financial models is going to be key. Rather than traditional fee based remuneration, we will need to look at other options.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this… and on what the short video kicks up for. You can also see and read more about the Turner’s House project.

By Jonathan Hughes