Pitch Your Project Voting Event

Pitch Your Project returns to God's House Tower on Friday 28 August, from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm. It's a community-led funding night run by 'a space' arts, and this round is a bit of a milestone: it marks ten years of Southampton Pride, and the funding is reserved for projects led by people who identify as LGBTQIA+.

The premise is simple. A group of community leaders each get ten minutes to pitch their project to the room. After the pitches, the voting opens on Saturday 29 August, and the community decides which one takes home the £2,000 grant to fund new activity in the SO postcode area. If you can't make it in person, the whole session is recorded and uploaded to the 'a space' arts YouTube channel, so you can watch the pitches and cast your vote from home.

There are five projects in the running this time, and they cover a fair bit of ground. Joy McKay is pitching Celebrating Our City, a new LGBTQIA+ Pride flag. Kuch Bhogal has Gathering in Celebration, a project of songs and stories of hope. Jez Franck is bringing The Oracle of Gender Designation, an interactive installation. Abigail Parkes is pitching Transcribe: Everybody Transitions, which offers paid opportunities for early-career writers. And Net Ember and Spencer Jones are working on Queer Southampton: Then and Now, a community archive. Each one gets ten minutes to make its case, so you'll hear the full range of what's on the table before the voting starts.

It's free to attend, and the whole thing runs from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm at God's House Tower on Town Quay Road, SO14 2NY. The voting opens the next day, Saturday 29 August, so you've got the weekend to decide where the money goes.