Central Station set up it’s own commissioning strand to grant monthly awards to innovative and risky projects proposed by our members.

Research during the development of the site revealed that what artists, filmmakers and designers wanted most was not promotion, advice or access to facilities but cold hard cash.

In response we launched the Member Fund, £10K that was used to award small sums of cash each month to projects that wouldn’t be supported via traditional routes. No laborious application process, we just asked for applicants to tell us what they wanted to do and how much they wanted.

The Member Fund was judged by our panel of Creative Heads, independent practitioners that included designers, curators, filmmakers and artists.

Although the fund no longer exists, it isn’t impossible that it might just come back one day.

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Take a look at some of the projects we supported and read what they had to say…

Announcement blogs by Censta:
Member Fund: Who gets £1,500?
£1,500 round two
Member Fund 03: Who won by who?
The next Member Fund award
Member Fund winners 5&6

Member Fund projects:
Fools Gold [Recoat]
AGK [Yuck n' Yum]
Brand Vs. Ethos’ Workshop – 200810 [SASA]
Pop-Up Cinema Matinee [SASA]
Pop-Up Cinema Matinee 200810 [SASA
A BIG Poster Club thank you to Central Station! [Poster Club]
I was a child Futurist [ptarmigan]
Boswell in Space…! [Boswell in Space]
Boswell in Space goes to Sheffield [Boswell in Space]
An Unco Site! [Confraternity of the Neoflagalents]
Chez Gallip [Bobby Niven]
Magic Towards Your Face [Henry Coombes]
Norman Hogg: Neomedievalism, From Empire to Kookdom in Three Easy Steps! [Confraternity of the Neoflagalents]

And here are some additional bits to browse:
Q&A: Boswell in Space
Q&A Bobby Niven

We applied to Members’ Fund to help us out with the cost of purchasing equipment and materials for producing new poster works, so we’re really pleased that Central Station like our idea so that we can get on with the business of making.

So far, all of our projects have been self-initiated but we hope that having a profile on Central Station will give us a chance to link up with other like-minded individuals and groups to collaborate with in future. Keep an eye on what we’re up to via our blog and feel free to drop us a line anytime.

Thanks also to those of you who have become our friends – it’s great to have your support.

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Poster Club was one of the projects awarded cash from the Central Station Members Fund.

Congratulations to:

SASA [originally Me+3] who are using their money to make The Anatomical City – a series of interactive urban experiments and agitprops that explore the function and culture of the city.

Poster_Club, a new platform bringing together painters, sculptors, filmmakers and printmakers once a week share ideas and work collaboratively, leading to the creation of a portfolio of printed posters.

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*Creative Heads consists of a cross-section of artists, designers and film-makers. Their main aims are to help the Central Station team to develop ideas and also to select one or more successful Member Fund projects every month. At the moment, the Creative Heads group consists of:

Johanna Basford – illustration

Gregor Johnstone – film

Neil McGuire – visual communications

Mutley – art

Simon Meek – multiplatform

Emlyn Firth – design