What is Grand Plan?
Grand Plan is a fund run by creatives, for creatives. We award £1,000 grants to artists and creative people of colour.
Our work is supported by a community of artists, creatives, and foundations who give their time and money to back the realisation of new cultural projects.
Since launching in May 2021, we’ve helped over 100 people with their Grand Plans. Our grantees have written children's books, made short films, produced Indian classical dance, purchased pottery kilns, launched trans music nights, set up black community archives, and so much more. The aim is simple: to provide a leg-up to people of colour to make a leap with their creative pursuits. That’s why Grand Plan offers £1,000 grants. We know it’s not the biggest pot of funding, but we know that it can be the difference between an endeavour or project happening or not.
And as we grow, we hope to build a community to support applicants beyond Grand Plan. We’ve committed to creating a fund that’s simple, accessible, and as transparent as possible. Our judging and application process has been designed with artists at heart, by artists and cultural producers. We continuously reflect on our work, to make sure that we react to our applicants’ changing needs. And we hope that our work can inspire larger institutions to reassess some of their own processes and barriers to entry faced by artists and creatives.
Grand Plan is a registered charity in England and Wales (1193497), and was co-created by Tom Rosenthal, Marina Diamandis and Siddharth Khajuria.
Do you want to help support our work? Then fill out this form to tell us how you can support us!
Team
Savena Surana - Program Manager
Savena is an award-winning creative communicator and producer. For over seven years she’s told stories of social good for clients such as the United Nations Foundation, Museum of London and Lego, crafting narratives that inspire change and challenge the status quo. She is also the co-founder of Identity 2.0, a creative studio working at the intersection of digital rights, identity and technology.
Siddharth Khajuria - Director
Siddharth’s a cultural producer. He tries to nurture space for creative projects that emerge from unlikely communities of artists, researchers, writers, poets, designers, curators, activists, and more — often co-creating new forms of work to explore a shared question. Most recently, he was Director of Science Gallery London, before which he worked at the Barbican for a decade. He’s also a photographer and writer.
Judges 2023/24
Abigail Maria Sol
Abigail has worked in the arts and culture sector for nearly a decade as a Director of Theatre and Film, Dramatherapist, and Entrepreneur.
"Access to funding and resources is one of the greatest barriers we face as creatives, particularly those of us who come from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. I am honored to be a part of the Grand Plan judging panel and contribute to making the arts more accessible. This is something that I have dedicated my career to, and I cannot wait to hear more about your and other applicants' work and vision.
Balraj Samrai
Balraj is a musician, facilitator, youth worker and record label director.
“I believe in the ethos and mission of Grand Plan and I'm excited to be a judge on their panel. It's important to support and uplift creative people of colour working on cultural projects to access resources as applying for funding is often long-winded and overcomplicated.”
Matthew Arthur Williams
Matthew is a visual and sound artist, photographer and DJ based in Glasgow.
“As someone who has been award a number of opportunities from panels in the past i know how vital it is for your practice and existence to be seen in this way. It is only my duty at this stage to continue supporting others on their journey.”
Zakiya Bishton
Zakiya is the founder of Mindwalk Yoga, creative content consultant and part of the founding team for the radical pro-black funding organisation, Baobab Foundation.
“Supporting marginalised creatives in the UK is essential to ensure the unseen, unheard, and unfinanced are centred. The Grand Plan is an exciting initiative I’m so excited to participate in.”
Trustees
Marina Diamandis
A critically acclaimed Welsh-Greek singer songwriter. Her four albums to date have charted in the top 10 in the UK as well as achieving international acclaim. Of her involvement in 'Grand Plan' she says “art mirrors culture and history. Great artists absorb the fabric and issues of our times and reflect them back to us. So, If we want to see real change, we need to see and hear more work from non-white artists. We all digest art everyday and it has the power to influence our perspectives, therefore we need to change the culture within creative industries to make sure everyone has equal opportunities, regardless of the colour of their skin.”
Tom Rosenthal
A singer-songwriter who’s released 5 albums, amassing well over 250 million streams. He’s done so as an independent artist and has commissioned many creative people in fields such as animation, illustration, and filmmaking. He has always sought to work with young and developing artists and give them opportunities to express themselves free of restrictions. He has seen how too many labels, especially the big ones, use exploitative structures that restrict artists in several ways. Recently, he’s sought to do something about this by setting up Tinpot Records, an independent record label designed with the artist at its heart. He’s aiming to move beyond just musicians and do a similar thing with Grand Plan.
Lucy Musgrave
Lucy Musgrave is the founding director of Publica an urban design practice and a director of Publica’s Community Interest Company which promotes a vision for inclusive and collaborative city-making. Over the past 30 years she has been contributing to a global conversation on urbanism and social architecture and how the vitality of urban neighbourhoods can be cared for in the midst of rapid growth and development. Lucy is a Design Advocate for the Mayor of London, with Publica contributing research and policy to make the city child-friendly, to have practical tools to understanding how we can plan and design the city for women and gender diverse people, and leading the policy agenda on the evening and night-time. Lucy has been an ambassador for Grand Plan since its inception.
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you from us (the co-founders Marina, Sidd and Tom) to our community of judges, ambassadors, supporters, and the people whose advice and guidance has helped us develop Grand Plan. April Brown (one of our judges, and now a Trustee) gave us wisdom and direction at the earliest stages. Sophie Chapman worked with us to develop the application process, and managed the fund for its first year. Alison Godfrey helped us navigate the world of the Charities Commission. Anna Leach’s wizardry helped make the website as warm and approachable as it is. Lucy Musgrave has provided so much invaluable guidance and grown the community of people who are supporting our work. Eleanor Nairne advocated for the fund and introduced us to some of our supporters. And our previous judges who have reviewed applications with a wealth of dedication and care: Travis Alabanza, Akinola Davies, Antonia Odunlami, Nikesh Shukla, Bolanle Tajudeen, Keisha Thompson and Sarra Wild.
Thank you to all these people, and all those we haven’t mentioned!
Support us
If you want to support our mission then fill out this form and we’ll get back to you!