Mayor George Ferguson will have to make some difficult decisions soon on the future of council funding to Bristol arts organisations. A worrying precedent has been set in Newcastle, where the city council has cut all funding to arts venues.

Bristol’s budget hole has now increased to £36 million, and there will no doubt be dismay from some quarters if the arts continue to profit to the perceived detriment of schools, old peoples care and transport.

Until the axe is swung, the council is still offering its two annual funding streams for community groups, organisations and individual artists in the city.

The Creative Seed Fund and Community Festival & Event Fund are both now open for applications, with £3,000 available from the former and £2,000 from the latter.

Click here and here for more information and funding criteria.

Smaller amounts of money, but funds that can prove just as useful to cash-strapped artists can be secured on Sunday at the latest Spoon Fed event, an arts micro-funding scheme that has been running bimonthly since February.

Founded by The Collect, a cooperative of Bristol-based creative producers, Spoon Fed’s aim is “to develop a strong, generous and diverse network of local practitioners and audiences by offering a platform for sharing practices and facilitating discussion”.

The prize pots have so ranged from £150 to £300, with organisations wanting a slice of the cash having to sometimes literally sing for their supper as they try to convince those attending on the night that they deserve the money.

Winners on the last outing were Gentleman Jack Theatre, who last month put on All’s Well That Ends Well at the Unitarian Chapel in Brunswick Square.

“We’re interested generally in ideas around gift exchange and alternative economies which we feel are particularly important to consider at the moment as the arts funding landscape is changing,” says Anna Searle Jones from The Collect.

Click here to find out more about Spoon Fed at Spike Island.