Watershed is a cultural organisation focussed on togetherness. We believe that to address the complex challenges our world is facing, we need to develop new imaginative capacity. Our application foregrounded the power of art to imagine beyond the inevitability of today, sparking a journey towards a more playful, inclusive and sustainable future.

We will achieve this by:

• Supporting artists to experiment.
• Producing sector leadership in responsible innovation, inclusion and climate action.
• Creating relevant and inclusive routes into film and creative technology.
• Improving the quality of public discourse around technology and its impact on our lives.
• Codifying and creating consistency around our own systems and processes to ensure we are the best organisation we can be.
• Sharing the knowledge we gain about all of the above in open and accessible ways.

Our programme centres around twin pillars of cultural cinema and creative technology - with an increasing focus on the emerging overlaps between the two forms - like immersive or expanded media. 

"We are delighted to be offered funding and deeply proud and excited about the work that we will do. We also stand in solidarity with the many organisations that were not successful, and acknowledge the pain that many people in the arts will be experiencing." Clare Reddington CEO

We received a strong assessment, with feedback saying our application demonstrated a strong contribution to their outcomes and that strong progress is likely in embedding the Investment Principles. However, for those of us receiving standstill funding we now face another real set of challenges -  to re-think the programme we had imagined, due to the dramatic rise in the costs. We will have to do less - we cannot make do.

We also applied for additional funding to establish a Creative Global Citizens programme from Arts Council England which we did not get.

Our work across the globe has taught us that creative communities thrive when they are globally connected and able to benefit from the exchange of ideas, talent and opportunity. Brexit, Covid, climate concern and financial crises mean the barriers to international engagement are high. Our hope with the Creative Global Citizens programme is to connect international communities of artists to think, make and share together over the long term, initially in Bristol, Lagos and Seoul, We believe that responsible international collaboration is vital to the sector's future resilience, and that this needs longer term infrastructure funding rather than short bursts of project cash.

We will continue to look for funding and partnerships to make this a reality and welcome conversations around this theme. In the spirit of openness, we are happy for you to read what we submitted - our application and our responses to each of Arts Council's investment principles are below.

Watershed invests in wonder and discovery. We foreground the power of art to imagine beyond the inevitability of today, sparking a journey towards a more playful, inclusive and sustainable future. We do not shy away from difficult issues and above all, we are hopeful about the future.

Read our NPO Submission

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