 Puppet Centre Trust Bursaries
PCT's bursary scheme is intended to facilitate the development of puppetry. The bursary supports artists of exceptional potential to explore under-developed areas of puppetry whilst also furthering their professional development. This year The Puppet Centre is offering two bursaries of £2500 for emerging practitioners. Applicants, who must be professional artists, are asked to devise a work programme aimed to develop themselves and their practice. Applications are assessed by portfolio and interview by the panel leading the Animating the Animators programme.
Application for the 2007/8 bursaries is now open. The Guidelines and Application form can be downloaded here: http://www.puppetcentre.org.uk/ata.html
A further bursary of £7500 has been awarded this year to Nenagh Watson in recognition of her work with doo-cot over the last 18 years. She will be exploring contemporary responses to the Punch and Judy tradition. This marks a shift in the way in which larger bursaries are managed, with recipients being sought out and a research proposal devised in collaboration with the Puppet Centre Trust. Due to a significant decrease in applications from established artists last year we are undertaking some research into how those bursaries might be better managed. We are considering a range of options including offering the bursary as an award without an application process or maintaining the application process but specifying a theme each year. We'd like to hear your views. If you have an idea of how we might better manage a large bursary scheme for practitioners with over 10 years experience please email Natalie at pct@puppetcentre.org.uk
| 
