The names of the various funding organisations are given below, set against the collections they helped pay for. I should acknowledge immediately that the Arts Council has been far and away the main funder throughout this story, in terms both of frequency and amount.
The list below implies the filling in of large numbers of application forms. Large numbers indeed. But not only that.
For example, I wrote at one point to Sir Nigel Crisp, then Chief Executive of the NHS. Soon afterwards, the project received generous funding from NHS Estates, matched by the Arts Council. This made possible the major reprint mentioned below. Three thousand packs of 100 poems each were printed for distribution round the NHS.
The Foreign Office funding followed a letter I wrote to Denis Macshane, then Minister for Europe. The funding that resulted was associated specifically with the Enlargement of the European Union in 2004. Ten countries joined that year. Ten bilingual poem-posters, one for each of those new member countries, were grandly displayed in the Durbar Room, in King Charles' Street, in celebration of that event. Funding from the Baring Foundation, supported as ever by the Arts Council, made possible a still larger pack of poems "in praise of diversity," launched by the Poet Laureate in 2005.
The Association of London Government funding made possible several promotional poetry readings in south London health sites. You can see pictures from several of the readings on this web site.
We are supported in 2008 by the Department of Health Equalities and Human Right Group, the Arts Council and the John Lewis Partnership (our first commercial sponsor). Funding from the latter two sources is due largely to the work of Sue Stewart, an independent arts consultant, whom we commissioned in 2007 to fund-raise for us.
We are soon to fund-raise again for our continued viability in 2009. We hope to attract further funding from the commercial sector.
| The Task | The Funder(s) | |
| The pilot 1997 | The Poetry Society (Lottery Funding) | |
| 50 commissioned poems on the subject of waiting, 200 packs, 1998. |
The Arts Council of England (“New Audiences”) | |
| 80 selected poems, including ten for children, 200 packs, 1999. |
The King’s Fund | |
| Re-print of 100 poems, combining the 50 commissioned poems and 50 King’s Fund poems, 3,000 packs, 2000 |
The Arts Council of England and NHS Estates | |
| Readings in NHS sites across South London, 2002 |
The Association of London Government | |
| 10 bilingual poems celebrating EU Enlargement, 3,000 packs, 2004 |
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, NHS Estates and the Arts Council of England | |
|
35 bilingual poems celebrating
diversity, 3,000 packs, 2005.
|
The Baring Foundation, Dept of Health, the Arts Council of England | |
| 10 bilingual poems for the Mayor of London’s Equalities Report, 2007 |
The Mayor of London and the Arts Council of England |
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