York Performance Award

Open to International (including EU) and UK (home) students.

Open to students in the School of Arts and Creative Technologies.

Your project should be distinctive and ambitious.

The Award is not designed to support research and development of a new project with a team that haven’t previously worked together; it is designed to allow a team who have a proven track record of working together to perform work beyond, and in, York. Evidence of prior work together is crucial to this Award.

You should outline plausible plans for the location of performances outside York you plan to mount.

You should include full costings of the enterprise and give details of monies already raised, and also provide a detailed indication of how the funding, if awarded, would be spent, and the difference it would make.

At least four University of York students must be involved in the project. Not all need to be performers. They might also, for example, be technicians or producers. The lead applicant on each submission must be an undergraduate or postgraduate member of either English and Related Literature or the School of Arts and Creative Technologies. Those involved in each project team may be from different departments / schools at the university, but all must be students of the University of York at the time of application. Only one student should submit the application papers for ease of contact.

The aim is that the performance(s) should happen before 1 July 2025 in an established public venue. Applicants are encouraged to think ambitiously about possible locations away from York.  (2014’s winners, for example, took their show to London for a highly successful run. 2019’s winners organised a multi-venue tour of their production.)

The enterprise must receive a York performance, at the university or elsewhere, which the funders can attend. Your application should include details about how you intend to arrange this. Hire fees will be waived for use of the performance spaces in TFTI as part of the Award and the group will receive the box office takings.

Award holders must undertake to credit both the award and their departments/school at the university in all published material (print and electronic) associated with their project. They will also be required to submit their publicity copy (website, online marketing material, programmes, leaflets, posters, etc.) for approval.

In order to apply for the award, please submit a concise description of your project, your plans for the non-York venue(s), the performance in York, and the significance of the event. Your application should consist of no more than three double-spaced pages of A4. You should also include the names and CVs of the students involved (one page per student max). You should identify each student’s department and include a brief account of how the performance will advance the career development of those taking part in it. 

If you have films and/or sound recordings of previous productions or performances by the group, or members of it, which can be made accessible online, please include these, as relevant, as part of the application.

In the event of an award being made, there would then be consultations about the more detailed planning between the York Performance Award administrators and the relevant group(s). Once those discussions are successfully completed, the funding would be transferred to the company or companies involved.

Please email your completed application to Professor Michael Cordner (michael.cordner@york.ac.uk) by 15 June 2024.  

Those shortlisted for the award may be invited to interview via Zoom.

Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application within six weeks of the deadline for the submission of applications. We are happy to offer concise feedback on unsuccessful applications should this be requested.