Storytellers Fund

Storytellers Fund is a grant from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) that funds content creators and storytellers in the UK working to inspire positive social change and challenge poverty through narrative. Launched in 2023, the fund supports storytellers aiming to diversify the pool of voices shaping political and cultural conversations, reach wider audiences, and build social movements.

Supported formats include podcasts, theater productions, documentary films, immersive experiences, Substack newsletters, YouTube channels, and mixed reality exhibitions. Eligible applicants are individual content creators and organizations with projects that advance transformative narratives around poverty, inequality, and justice. Award amounts range from £3,000 to £50,000 depending on project scope.

Storytellers | Joseph Rowntree Foundation The Storytellers Fund seeks storytellers aiming to inspire positive social change and reach wider audiences. JRF is committed to being a generous supporter of social movements, we want to strengthen the voice and action of people in their communities. We launched the Storytellers Fund in 2023 to support those aiming to inspire change to share their content more widely and reach new audiences.

Our goal is to support the spread of stories that diversify the pool of storytellers and content creators who are shaping the conversations around our politics and culture. Through storytelling, we aim to promote transformative narratives and help build a better future for all. Talking About Wealth by Sarah Kerr - podcast Over a new 6-episode podcast series, Sarah will talk to leading thinkers and doers in the wealth and poverty space.

The aim of the podcast is to make a more accessible space for thinking and talking about wealth as a social problem, and specifically, for thinking about the effects of extreme private wealth ownership on social and environmental sustainability. https://policy. bristoluniversitypress.

co. uk/wealth-poverty-and-enduring-inequality Port Talbot Gotta Banksy, Theatr3 – theatre production Port Talbot Gotta Banksy uncovers the story of Banksy’s Season’s Greetings, the mural that put the pollution of Port Talbot’s mammoth steelworks in the spotlight - just before the last blast furnace in the UK was shut down.

With a script crafted from over 100 hours of verbatim interviews with Port Talbot’s residents over a 6-year period, the production explores the challenges, resilience and pride of one of the UK’s last industrial heartlands and encourages reflection on our shared responsibility to support communities. The play will tour 4 towns and cities in Wales and be hosted for a research and development week at the National Theatre Studio, London.

https://theatr3. com/our-work. html Museum of Austerity, English Touring Theatre - mixed reality exhibition In 2016, the UN found that “grave or systemic violations” of the rights of disabled people were taking place throughout the UK.

Museum of Austerity invites visitors to wear a mixed reality headset, and enter a striking, holographic gallery that lays bare the consequences when state safety nets fail. This mixed reality exhibition blends theatre, history and humanity. Funding has been awarded to extend the reach of its tour, bringing this groundbreaking new form of immersive documentary to wider audiences across the UK.

https://ett. org. uk/our-work/museum-of-austerity Seed Guardians, Mandala Theatre Company - play Seed Guardians is a play that mirrors stories of food poverty and scarcity across the UK and Global South and uses creative storytelling to focus on the right to food and the importance of connecting with nature, each other, and sustainable food systems.

The play will be performed at universities, schools and community venues in Leeds, Liverpool, Oxford and London. https://www. mandalatheatre.

co. uk/copy-of-seed-guardians-1 Spoken Futurism Live, Esi Yankey - immersive storytelling experience This innovative live show invites you to step into a multiversal storybook, exploring themes of love, parenthood, war, resistance, social justice, politics, pandemics, ancestry, death, and rebirth.

Poetry is paired with a dynamic fusion of live orchestral instruments and digitally produced music—a seamless meeting of classical soundscapes and futuristic rhythms—while afrosurrealist AI visuals created by Vince Fraser vividly bring the narratives to life.

The work offers an opportunity for people to explore the artform of their interest in combination with artforms that may be new to them and connect with human stories told in a new way, promoting empathy and understanding, introspection, and entertainment.

Explore our previous storytellers Black Queer and Done – feature film This documentary film explores the experiences of Black Queer artists and arts professionals within the UK and broader mainstream arts, media, and culture sectors. The film highlights the challenges and successes faced by these communities and their contribution to the cultural landscape. https://www.

instagram. com/blackqueerdone Conversations on Poverty – Substack by Jem Bartholomew Jem’s Substack newsletter and new book critically examine media coverage of poverty and social inequality. With contributions from authors based in the UK and USA, the project focuses on immersive narrative nonfiction, ensuring that poverty reporting avoids exploitative or extractive tendencies.

https://conversationsonpoverty. substack. com Southwark Playhouse toured a brand-new adaptation of John Agard’s poem Windrush Child around seventeen primary schools where, over 1000 young people saw a performance in their own schools.

The story follows a young boy bidding farewell to his Caribbean home as he embarks on a journey aboard the Empire Windrush, bringing to life the emotional and historical significance of the Windrush generation.

Belfast Photo Festival - climate change and activism Premiere of Richard Mosse’s Broken Spectre, vast and immersive 74-minute audio-visual installation sparking important conversations on climate change as part of 10th edition of the Belfast Photo Festival, the largest of its kind in the UK and Ireland. https://www. belfastphotofestival.

com/richard-mosse-exhibition She Could Fly – gaming and mental health A documentary escape game based on Christopher Cantwell and Martín Morazzo's comic book "She Could Fly,". Co-designed with scientists, OCD Action, and young people the game combines comic art, documentary films and interactive gameplay, that takes players on a looping quest to explore the deeply misunderstood mental illness, OCD.

Authors of the Estate – documentary film This London-based documentary project explores how residents of social housing estates can reshape narratives by becoming content creators. The film provides community groups with the tools and resources to tell the stories that matter most to them, changing the way estates and their residents are viewed and understood across the country. https://www.

freedomandbalance. com/authorsoftheestate Round Our Way – digital stories on climate change https://www. roundourway.

org Gary’s Economics – YouTube channel Gary's Economics is a YouTube channel that explains real-world economics in an accessible way. It features interviews with individuals affected by the cost-of-living crisis and conversations with economists, aiming to demystify complex economic issues and their impacts on people. https://www.

youtube. com/@garyseconomics