Twenty-seven Welsh artists awarded funding in £2m immersive arts scheme

Twenty-seven Welsh artists have received funding as part of a £2 million UK scheme supporting immersive projects.

The investment, led by Immersive Arts, is supporting a total of 142 artist-led projects across the UK, enabling artists of all backgrounds and experience levels to explore immersive technologies.

The funding supports artists at different stages of their creative development to explore, experiment or expand how they make work that uses technology to actively involve an audience.

The scheme received over 2700 applications from across the country from artists hoping to create brave, innovative, sensitive and challenging work using immersive technologies.

One of the Welsh projects selected is the play ‘Becoming A Monster’ by Connor Allen which has been awarded a £50,000 Expand grant.

Connor Allen, an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and former Children’s Laureate of Wales, will bring the autobiographical play to life through an immersive XR headset experience.

The play, shaped by abandonment, anger and loss which transform into hope and self-acceptance, blends spoken word with immersive 3D environments.

The AI-powered XR headset invites audiences to step inside a series of interconnected memories drawn from his poem “Remove the Knot”.

Connor said: “To be awarded an Immersive Arts award is a huge honour and one I’m incredibly grateful for. Not just because opportunities like this often don’t come to kids like myself, but because it gives me the privilege of telling stories that resonate with people who share similar experiences.

“Exploring XR technologies gives this kind of storytelling a whole new lease of life and that’s what
truly excites me. It opens up new ways to share the world I’ve been building through autobiographical storytelling, allowing people not just to hear the story but to step inside it.”

A UK-wide consortium led by UWE Bristol, Immersive Arts is led in Wales by the Wales Millennium Centre.

£2,060,000 has been awarded in this second round of Immersive Arts grant funding – nearly double that of the first round

Joanna Wright, Innovation, Digital & Interdisciplinary Arts lead at Arts Council of Wales said: “Immersive Arts has brought focus and support to a broad spectrum of innovative immersive work in Wales. It’s allowed vital entry points, risk taking and ecosystem-building for artists who may not have previously considered using immersive tools.

“It provides a clear funding pathway designed for artists, and support from dedicated producers who bring expertise and guidance to artists wanting to develop their practice in this space.We look forward to audiences in Wales and beyond experiencing this work in the future.”

Other funded artists are working across a breadth of forms including sound, music, theatre, dance, game design, visual arts, sculpture, photography, animation, architecture and filmmaking.

They will be working with a range of immersive technologies including virtual, augmented and mixed reality, 360-degree film, spatial sound, haptics and tactile interfaces, artificial intelligence, biofeedback and responsive environments.

Verity McIntosh, Director of Immersive Arts and Professor of Immersive Arts and Culture at UWE Bristol, said: “We are delighted to be able to support so many extraordinary UK artists and projects through this latest funding announcement.

“Our thanks to the incredible partners and funders who continue to make it possible for artists to develop their practice and make bold new works with powerful cultural impact, connecting UK creativity with audiences around the world.”

The Immersive Arts team was “encouraged” that artists with a broad range of backgrounds and lived experiences applied to the scheme.

Over a quarter of applications and awarded artists in this round are from the global majority, over 55% identify as a woman, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, agender, or other marginalised gender, and over 45% identify as disabled, D/deaf, neurodivergent or having a long-term physical or mental health condition or chronic illness.

Professor McIntosh added: “Research suggests that each of these communities remain significantly under-represented in the arts and technology sectors, and we are delighted to see such strong representation from incredible artists across the cohort.”

Further details of all funded projects can be found on the Immersive Arts website.