Artist Bursary
Phakama want to GIVE artists the space, time and means to create, experiment and be.
We want to GAIN greater perspectives of (new) arts practices and raise our profile.
At Phakama we understand that artist facilitators, with their unique skills and experience are integral to the ongoing growth of the company.
It is our intention that artists don’t just deliver workshops for us, but are involved in the shaping and creation of projects.
Each year we offer seed funding of up to £2000 for an artist to develop a discrete project that chimes with Phakama’s vision.
We hope that this seed funding will allow artists to test out their ideas whilst collaborating with and complementing Phakama’s vision.
I’ve had the opportunity through this seed funding to try something new and I still can’t believe the outcome. It’s such a brilliant scheme, it’s opened me up to whole other medium, but more importantly, by selecting me as the bursary recipient for 2019, Phakama believed in my project and that belief has taken me very far from where I was a year ago.
Hussina Raja 2019 bursary recipient -
Current Artist Bursary Project:

Image by Hatiq Mohammed
Hatiq Mohammed is an outsider artist who goes by the name Teakster. He has an extensive background of creating large scale murals inspired by his Islamic faith. Hatiq’s proposal is to create a mural in Tower Hamlets with a group of young people, which has been designed by the participants and reflects their beliefs and interests.
As Hatiq is a new artist to Phakama, we have teamed him up with Young Creative, Ellis Lewis-Dragstra to act as a Phakama mentor to him.
Hatiq's project was due to start in June so we will continue to monitor what happens with coronavirus and decide nearer the time whether it will have to be postponed/altered.