Maidstone Arts Grants: £500 to £2,000, Closing 29 November

Maidstone’s Creative Communities Grants reopened for applications on Tuesday 1 September, with £15,000 to distribute and a closing date of 29 November 2026.

The change worth knowing is where the money can go. The scheme used to be paid for out of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and was restricted to projects in the town centre. That funding has gone. Maidstone Borough Council has put its own money in instead, and opened the scheme to the whole borough.

For a village hall in Lenham, a choir in Marden or a group in Coxheath, this is the first round they have been able to enter.

The basics

• Grant range: £500 to £2,000
• Total fund: £30,000 a year, split across two rounds
• This round: £15,000, open now, closing 29 November 2026
• Decisions: applicants told by 18 December 2026
• Who can apply: individual artists and creatives, community groups, cultural organisations
• Where: you or your organisation must be based in, or deliver the work within, Maidstone borough
• Age: individual applicants must be 18 or over, and organisations need an accountable person who is 18 or over

The council’s funding page carries the full guidance and the application form.

What gets funded

Projects must strongly address at least two of four priorities, and each answer is scored out of 25 by a panel that reviews applications individually before meeting to decide.

The four priorities are increasing pride in the borough and its communities; increasing participation in arts and cultural activities; supporting or improving individual or community health; and promoting environmental awareness and responsibility.

Eligible disciplines are visual arts, music, theatre and performance, dance, literature and heritage.

The exclusions are as important as the priorities. You cannot apply for ongoing business running costs, capital projects, statutory education costs including course fees, anything that has already happened, projects that make a profit, or cash prizes, re-granting and donations.

What the money has paid for before

The council says the scheme has supported more than 80 projects in four years, reaching more than 12,500 people. Three it names:

• Maidstone Improv Festival, £3,000 over two years, to start and grow a multi-venue comedy festival with workshops, family events and performances. The council says audiences passed 200.
• Letters, Leaves and Laughter, £1,000, a community quilting project run with groups at Maidstone Museum, a GP surgery and the Old Boat Café. It produced three quilts, which were exhibited, and the weekly sessions are still running.
• Maidstone Gurkha Veterans into Arts, £1,500, drawing and painting sessions for veterans.

Councillor Stephen Thompson, the cabinet member for healthier stronger communities, said extending the scheme borough-wide meant “even more residents and communities can benefit, wherever they are based”.

The strings attached

Winning applicants sign a legal agreement before any money is released, and need a UK bank account. They must use the council’s logo to the supplied branding guidelines in all marketing for the funded project, tell the council immediately about any significant change including a date change, and submit an evaluation report with a budget breakdown, supporting documents and photographs once the project finishes. Projects are monitored while they run.

Applicants are also encouraged to promote the work themselves and to give the council photos and video for its own social media, subject to permissions.

If you miss this round

The 2026/27 timetable has two award dates. The August round closed on 19 July. This is the December round: open 1 September, closing 29 November, notifications 18 December.

The same council page lists other routes for larger projects, including Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, which run from £1,000 to £100,000 and are open to individuals as well as organisations, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, whose smallest band starts at £3,000.

What it means for you

If you run a group. £500 to £2,000 is small-grant money, aimed at a single project, event or activity rather than keeping the lights on. The realistic use is a run of workshops, a one-off event, or a piece of work with a specific group of people. The scoring rewards being clear about who benefits and how.

If you are outside the town. This is the first round open to you. There is no ring-fence for rural applications in the published criteria, so a strong village application competes on the same terms as a town centre one.

If you have three months. You do. Applications close on 29 November and decisions land on 18 December, so anything you want funded has to be scheduled to happen after that.

Related: things to do in Maidstone.