Cultural Capital Fund – Schools

John Lyon’s Charity gives grants to benefit children and young people up to the age of 25 who live in nine boroughs in North and West London: Barnet, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Kensington & Chelsea and the Cities of London and Westminster. The Charity distributes around £10-12 million in grants each year.

Even before Covid-19 and the closure of schools, John Lyon’s Charity was very much aware of the worrying trend away from Arts subjects in schools to focus on the more ‘academic’ core subjects. Many schools do not offer specialist Arts GCSE and A Level subjects and even at primary level, where there is usually more flexibility on the curriculum, Arts activities are often squeezed in favour of Maths or literacy.

To try and encourage schools to prioritise more arts activities for their students, we are pleased to offer our Cultural Capital Fund. This exciting Fund is exclusive to schools and Arts organisations only. It is designed to ensure that access to high quality Arts activities, delivered by the best Arts practitioners, are accessible to all children across the Beneficial Area. Activities should be planned and delivered as face-to-face experiences; applications for virtual or online delivery are not suitable for this Fund.

Who can apply:

• Arts and cultural institutions in London with registered charity status that have previously been funded by John Lyon’s Charity. For more information on the Cultural Capital Fund for Arts Organisations, please click here.
• State schools (primary, secondary or special) or nurseries (including registered charities) that are based in the Charity’s Beneficial Area. Please note that privately run nurseries are not eligible for this Fund.
• Arts organisations can apply to take their programmes to multiple different schools.
• Individual schools can apply to work with one Arts organisation that they have identified themselves.
• If you are an Arts organisation that has not received a grant from the Charity in the past, you can still apply for funding under the Main Grants Fund or the Small Grants Fund. Please visit our Grants page for more information.
• There is a one-stage application process for both schools and Arts organisations.

John Lyon’s Charity gives grants to benefit children and young people up to the age of 25 who live in nine boroughs in North and West London. To be eligible to apply for a grant, you must: *either be a school, a registred charity or have automatic charitable status, and *work to benefit children and young people in one of the Charity`s nine boroughs.

• Any state school (primary, special or secondary) or nursery (including registered charities) that is based in the Charity’s Beneficial Area can apply to the Cultural Capital Fund. Please note, this does not include private nurseries.
• Applications can be made to work with an Arts organisation based in London. The Arts organisation does NOT need to previously have been funded by John Lyon’s Charity. For more information about the funding guidelines for Arts Organisations, please click here. Please note that therapy activities that use arts and music are not eligible.
• Activities can include trips, coach costs or workshop costs. Applications cannot cover school staff time.
• Suitable Arts activities include:
• Trips to the theatre (Drama / dance)
• Visits to Art galleries or museums
• Workshops delivered by established Arts institutions in London e.g. museums, galleries, theatres etc.

Grants of up to £5,000 per school are available.

There is a rolling application process with no deadlines. You should apply to us at least eight weeks before your planned activity to give us time to process your application.