BIRMINGHAM, UK.- Ten projects in Birmingham are amongst the twenty-nine projects across the West Midlands that have been awarded a total of £485,765 in last month’s Grants for the arts awards from Arts Council England, West Midlands.

The Grants for the arts programme in the West Midlands awards over £5 million annually to arts projects and is open to a wide range of groups and individuals. The programme distributes money from the National Lottery and from Government.

This month’s successful projects cover a wide range of activity across the West Midlands, with a total of £191,428 going to schemes in Birmingham. Artist David Knowles plans to transform a vacant unit in the Mailbox into a place of natural beauty with a £4,757 award. Nine hundred and eighty images of the Severn Estuary will be projected onto a shop window continuously for six weeks beginning 14 April.

The Birmingham Book Festival has received funding for the next two annual literature festivals. The event, which has proved popular in the past, has attracted many top names including Billy Bragg, Julie Walters and the best selling author Richard Dawkins.

Sally Luton, Executive Director of Arts Council England, West Midlands said ‘We are proud to have the opportunity to fund so many varied and exciting projects. We believe that art can, and should, enrich our everyday lives. We have launched a public consultation to debate the arts and public funding and we strongly encourage everyone to have their say.’

What do the arts mean to you?

Arts Council England are currently holding the arts debate, where anyone can express opinions and debate ideas about what they value about the arts and what they expect from public funding.

Views collected from the debate will enable the Arts Council to become more in tune with the public and gain greater understanding of what people expect from public investment in the arts in order to inform our plans for the future.