Our CREATE! 2026 course for early career creatives was a great success with 19 participants taking part in 5 full day workshops throughout January. The course is free and is delivered by Activate, Arts by the Sea festival and b-side.
Topics covered included: What makes a great event, building a network, how community-led projects work, financing a creative idea, marketing and audience identification, health and safety, and risk management.
As part of the course, participants have the opportunity to pitch their creative ideas to Activate, Arts by the Sea festival and b-side, with the chance to receive up to £500 to help make their idea a reality or develop their project further. This year there were some extraordinary ideas that made it difficult to choose.
We are delighted that the following 6 artists were successful and will receive seed funding to develop their projects further:
James Buckley – £500
A community-focussed photography walk, centralised on the local landscapes of Portland.
Joe Butcher (for further Research and Development) – £250
To develop immersive sound installations, combining multi-channel speaker technology with acoustic physics. These enveloping experiences will play with architectural scale, light, colour and sound.
Dean Herbert – £500
Drag King workshop exploring Drag King history and an exploration of masculinity, finding and creating a drag persona, and drag makeup and costume building skills.
Caleb King (for further Research and Development) – £250
To develop a bioluminescent display, using a culture of bioluminescent algae known as dinoflaggellates, which glow when agitated in water.
Kirsty Nicolson – £500
Clowns Aloud!: Open, accessible clowning workshops, offering an opportunity to explore, play, have fun and meet new friends. At the heart of this project, are humans, with a project ethos of sharing space, ideas and some very serious silliness.
Annabel Worsfold – £500
In The Making: a monthly creative showcase and community platform in Dorset supporting emerging and marginalised artists. Each event features short plays, an open mic performance, and visual art, offering an accessible, low-pressure space for experimentation, feedback, collaboration, and connection.
In addition to the seed funding offered above, CREATE! participant Amy Jerman has secured a position to deliver their workshop at this year’s Arts by the Sea festival. The workshops (Mood Tube) are inclusive, welcoming music workshops for all adults, no matter their level of musical skill or experience. Letting their silly, playful side through and tapping into their inner child, this workshop focuses on BoomWhackers – fun, accessible, tubular percussion instruments.
We can’t wait for these projects to develop and see what these talented early career creatives come up with next.