An innovative opera experience and a crafted, hand-drawn multimedia installation have won the
first round of the Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund, our bursary to nurture up-and-coming artistic
talent.
The Fund, run in association with Ideas Tap, awards £30,000 to young people who need help
turning their creative passion into a profession. In total, five artists will receive the
prize. They will also receive mentoring to build networking skills, industry knowledge and
commercial awareness. It’s open to men and women aged 18-30 working on visual art, literature,
theatre, performance art, film or dance projects.
The first two winners are 29-year-old artist/animator Phoebe Boswell (whose drawing
Wanjiru for The Royal Society of Portrait Painters show 2011 is shown above) and opera
director Daisy Evans, 23.
Evans was awarded for her
Silent Opera production,
which mixes live singing on stage with pre-recorded music heard by the audience through
headphones.
Boswell’s installation,
Nyumbani – which means ‘Home’ in Kiswahili – uses traditional illustration animation to
tell stories of her parents’ interracial marriage.
Both shone through a shortlist of six entries to receive a £30,000 prize each. The judging panel
included broadcaster Jo Whiley;
The Times Arts Commissioning Editor Nancy Durant; James Hunt, Channel Director for Sky Arts;
and poet and writer Sabrina Mahfouz, a previous IdeasTap fund winner. Also on the panel were Rupert
Goold, Director of Headlong Theatre Company and Jo Fox, Sky Director of The Bigger
Picture.
Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund is now seeking submissions for its second round. If you’re
eligible or know somebody who is, details are available from the
Future Fund
website.
As Phoebe Boswell says: “The main thing is to just apply. Don’t worry about whether you’re ready
or if they’ll like it. In the end, it makes no difference if you don’t get it, but a huge
difference if you do.”
