Closing date: 24 Oct 2023

Funded by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland in partnership with a range of local authorities and arts agencies across Scotland, the Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards (VACMA) will support artists at all stages of their career to develop their creative practice. This can include researching a new body of work, experimenting with new materials, attending courses, artistic mentoring, masterclasses and residencies, among other activities.

The VACMA programme offers fixed bursaries of £500 for early-career applicants who have less than 5 years’ experience and £750 for applicants that have been practicing for over 5 years. The bursary schemes are managed locally by the VACMA partners. This year there are 17 schemes covering 26 Local Authority areas.

Applications should be made through the local schemes. VACMA is administered locally by partners and covers the following 26 local authority areas:

Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Ayrshire (North, South and East), City of Edinburgh, Dundee, East Lothian, Fife (including Perth and Kinross), Forth Valley (Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire), Glasgow, Highlands (including Moray and Western Isles), North Lanarkshire, Orkney, Renfrewshire, South of Scotland (Borders and Dumfries & Galloway), Shetland Islands and West Dunbartonshire.

The deadlines for applications are:
Autumn deadline: 5pm, Tuesday 24 October 2023
Winter deadline: 5pm, Tuesday 6 February 2024

Please note: Not all VACMA partners run both deadlines, some will only have one deadline a year. Applicants should check with their local scheme to see which deadline(s) they are running.

For further information, please contact enquiries@creativescotland.com (enquiries@creativescotland.com), or visit https://www.creativescotland.com/vacma