Turning 863 entries in to a shortlist of six is hard enough. When every single submission is as praiseworthy as those received for Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund, it’s a tall order indeed. 

For those of you who didn’t make it through this time then remember, the fund opens again in November and three more artists will be awarded bursaries. To coincide with this, Sky Arts and IdeasTap are putting on a series of arts masterclasses to help with your application and your ongoing artistic career. 

You’ll receive guidance on how to write that winning application and the chance to hear from established artists about how they took their work to the next level and how they made the leap from education to becoming a successful artist. The workshops will take place in London, Scotland, Manchester and Dublin and you can book tickets right here on IdeasTap. Watch this space for details. 

Now, we are very pleased to present the fantastic shortlist for this life-changing bursary. Drum roll please… 

Ania Leszczynska, 24, pitched a 10-minute animation: “No dialogue, just sound and music. The story is about a boy and his robot toy. The boy, perpetually anxious, keeps feeding his toy with feelings he otherwise cannot express. The film is a metaphor for development of chronic depression - however there is a happy ending.” 

William Kunhardt, 22, pitched his project like this: “Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven: The Vienna Revolutionaries. An experiential concert series exploring works that shaped the history of Western music, underlining why classical music is a relevant, modern art form. One performance will be dedicated to each Viennese master, featuring my conducting, the orchestra I founded, world-leading soloists, open rehearsals, dramatised performances of the composers’ letters and on stage interviews with soloists and musicians. The fourth concert is a ‘late gig’ in a club, with relaxed rules, drinks, accompanying acts, DJs and the musicians performing in the middle of floor, surrounded by the audience.” 

Daisy Evans, 24, pitched: “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartok), taking place in a large-scale installation comprising of a large space lined with seven locked doors. Audience wear silent disco headphones, and are led into the castle by the singers; Bluebeard and Judith. The singers are equipped with earpieces feeding them the pre-recorded orchestra and a microphone. They sing live and the tracks are mixed and fed through the audience headphones providing the complete opera, allowing them to freely traverse the installation. It brings the terrifying drama directly into their heads as each door is unlocked for their exploration.” 

Jack Lowe, 26, submitted this proposal: “I aim to direct a new piece of devised theatre called After the Rainfall, inspired by the sense of smell, Omar Khayyam’s The Rubaiyat, a violin maker and the world of ants. Collaborating with a chemist, perfumer, and a video artist specialising in holograms, After the Rainfall fuses narratives of science to create a parable about how we invisibly create and destroy our own personal identities at the turn of the first decade of the 21st century. Initially as part of FURNACE at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, before previewing at TRANSFORM and touring in autumn.” 

Julia Vogl, 26, applied with this short summary: “As a society we are less fixed on living in one place. HOME is a public art work, audio and visual, reflecting Londoners’ ideas of why this city is home. The outcome will be a community-built, multicoloured brick pavilion. Community interviews will become mp3 tracks embedded in colour-coded bricks so the public can hear different concepts of home. The colour code will reflect the time interviewees have lived in London. The pavilion will host a sound booth enabling public-run interviewing. HOME will be built and used throughout the Olympics, engaging and being experienced by thousands.” 

Phoebe Boswell, 29, pitched a project for which: “the outcome is a multimedia installation using hand-drawn animation via television screens, projection screens and projections onto walls, wall drawings, and drawings on paper to offer two complex life stories: my mother’s, and my father’s. Splitting the exhibition space down the centre, the two narratives play simultaneously, with crossovers as my parents’ worlds collide in a union that was seen in Kenya at the time as controversial as it was idealistic. Sound (music/voiceover) will emphasise the duality, sometimes cacophonic, sometimes harmonious, and language/translation (English/Swahili) will be used as a communicative v alienating tool to further juxtapose the two narratives...” 

Enormous congratulations to all six shortlisted artists: it is an incredible achievement to get this far and you should all be thoroughly chuffed with yourselves. 

We must also congratulate the group of artists who very nearly made it to the shortlist. Here is the list of highly commended contributors: 

Jake Wilson  

Ella Robson Guilfoyle 

Fiona Bevan 

Alice Lacey  

Joe Simpson 

Darren O’Kane 

Magda Boreysza 

Joe Turner 

Amy Adele Seymour 

Riccardo Buscarini

So, what’s next? 

In November, the shortlist of six artists will pitch their projects, in person, to our very exciting panel of judges: 

Jo Whiley, Radio and TV presenter 

Rupert Goold, Theatre Director and Artistic Director, Headlong Theatre Company 

James Hunt, Channel Director, Sky Arts

Jo Fox, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Sky (Investment in Arts, Sports and Environment)

Amanda White, Director of Strategy and Partnerships, IdeasTap 

Sabrina Mahfouz, Poet and writer, IdeasTap member and former IdeasTap fund winner

The judges will then select two winners who will receive the £30k prize money and mentoring.

So, congratulations to absolutely everyone who got through to this stage. It has been incredibly tough to draw up this shortlist, but we are very proud of all our members for showing such talent, enthusiasm and originality. And, for those of you who are through to the next round, good luck and watch this space!