Current Grantees
Alphabetti Theatre
Alphabetti Theatre is an award-winning, artist-led performance space in Newcastle upon Tyne. We believe that great art should be for everyone, regardless of financial situation, and work to create great socioeconomically accessible theatre by, with and for our community. We are the city’s smallest producing house, making a big impact.
Alphabetti was created to fulfil the need for a fringe venue in the North East, a place for early career artists to experiment, evolve, and be inspired. It is a community-driven space, dedicated to enabling access to theatre, whether as a creative or an audience member. Through its lauded Pay What You Feel ticketing, artist development programmes, and homegrown talent, it’s working to ensure the continued enjoyment and development of the performing arts in the region.
Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust provided core funding to support Alphabetti Theatre.
The Ashdown Forest Foundation
The Ashdown Forest Foundation raises funds to protect Ashdown Forest for current and future generations. Through education and philanthropy, TAFF contributes to the conservation of this special landscape for public enjoyment and to raise quality of life and wellbeing in the community.
Ashdown Forest is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a European Special Protection Area (SPA), a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Natura 2000 site. It contains 2.5% of the remaining lowland heathland in the UK and is one of the largest open-access public spaces in south-east England.
The Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust has supported The Ashdown Forest Foundation’s learning programme for children and young people, enabling conservators to continue to develop access to learning in nature for everyone.
Blueprint For All
Blueprint For All Building Futures programme provides architecture bursaries. For some young people, becoming an architect or working within the built environment seems like an impossible dream. Not because they lack the ability or aspiration, but because they may not have access to the same opportunities as their peers or the financial support they need. Blueprint For All focuses on diversity and challenges and underrepresentation in the Built Environment and Design industries.
Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust provided core funding for the Building Futures programme.
Body Talks Movement
Body Talks Movement (BTM) is a Community Interest Company that runs an international children's dance film workshop programme, whilst creating films and art installations for the wider public. BTM gives voice to ‘the unheard’ and harnesses the healing potential of movement and other expressive digital art forms. This is achieved by building bridges and empathy through the universal language of dance, using technology in a positive way, to connect children with peers within and beyond their local community. Dance is combined with film, sound and virtual communication. Body Talks Movement is exploring the potential of SEI (social, emotional and intercultural) learning in addition to expressive non-verbal communication systems that enable people to heal and connect meaningfully through movement and film.
Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust provided core funding to support Body Talks Movement.
Ministry of Stories
Ministry of Stories champions the writer in every child. Co-founded in 2010 by writer Nick Hornby, Ministry of Stories has helped thousands of children and young people discover their confidence and potential. Working in schools across Hackney, Islington and Tower Hamlets and in their dedicated writing centre on Hoxton Street, professional writing facilitators and volunteer mentors support children to write brighter futures for themselves. Through the power of their ideas, creativity and imagination, young writers create spectacular final outcomes to share with their friends, families and communities.
Recent projects have included beautiful anthologies, public art installations in the shop windows of local businesses, radio plays with BBC history, collaborations with Shoreditch’s Autograph Gallery, a fully-functioning escape room experience, and much more, with a little help from partners across the creative industries.
Ministry of Stories is hidden behind their own fantastical shop Hoxton Street Monster Supplies, serving London’s monster population (and the occasional human) since 1818. All proceeds from their monstrous offerings such as Cubed Earwax and Thickest Human Snot go back to support our work with young people.
Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust has supported the Community Writing Labs since 2013, ensuring that they remain free for all young people to attend.
North Star Co-Design
North Star Co-Design CIC was established by Director Louie Ingham and Writer Lee Mattinson to co-design and deliver long-term cultural activity in the Byker estate in Newcastle.
Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust funded Beyond the Wall; a co-creation project by a company of young makers from the Byker Wall Estate in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It reunites the team behind Byker Audio Stories to dream, make and create a suite of new site-specific audio experiences, which ask ‘where are we now?’ It is the opportunity for a company of makers to re-collide on the other side of a global pandemic to create a space for those young people and their families to be still, reflect and share their ideas for the future, on the streets they call home.