More than 40 groups have been awarded funding through the Windrush Day Grant Scheme for arts, educational and sporting projects across England on the 75th anniversary of arrival of the MV Empire Windrush to the UK, the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing has announced.
£750,000 has been awarded to projects across England, including The Brixton Project, a community-led carnival of art, theatre and music, and the Blackstory Partnership, a commemorative Windrush 75 event in Birmingham.
More than 200 Windrush Day projects have so far received a share of the £2.75 million funding over four years in celebration of the contributions of the Windrush generation and their families.
These community-led initiatives will celebrate the anniversary with events and activities taking place between Thursday 8th June and Thursday 31st August 2023.
This year’s celebration of the British Caribbean community will mark the arrival 75 years ago of the MV Empire Windrush, when the first passengers disembarked at Tilbury Docks.
Next month, communities will come together to honour and celebrate those pioneers who answered the call to come to Britain and help rebuild the nation following the Second World War.
A full list of funded projects can be found on the GOV.UK website.
The National Lottery Small Grants scheme, Awards for All England, is currently offering funding to commemorate Windrush 75.
A couple of online clinics for organisations interested in applying for grant support have been scheduled for Monday 12th June 2023 and Monday 26th June 2023. Further information, including how to register to attend, can be found on the National Lottery Community Fund website.
BLACK* Artists on the Move, a Bristol-based, UK-wide organisation supporting artists of Afrikan, Caribbean, Asian, Latin American and non-European descent, was awarded a grant of £21,235. The grant will enable the organisation to hold a cross-generational literary lunch in Bristol on National Windrush Day, inviting elders and school children to attend. The event will feature readings from all four books published through its 2022 Windrush work. It will deliver 20 assemblies and workshops in 20 schools across 10 regions. It will work with one key library in each locality, providing intergenerational community workshops. It will also work with communities in each region to compose two further anthologies – one a joint life writing collection for women and men, and a second collection of folk tales and personal stories for children.