Octopus Story immersive art project wins £2,500 grant from Portsmouth City Council

Octopus Story has been given the cash from Portsmouth City Council’s CIL Transformation Fund in matched funding as part of the project's crowdfunding campaign.

The crowdfunder, which runs until August 17, is raising money to help deliver a range of workshops and ensure the flagship event at the Anglican cathedral is one of the best cultural events in the city this year.

Project organiser Roy Hanney said: We want the project to offer as many people as possible the chance to get involved with Octopus Story. We have exciting plans for the final event which are currently forecast to cost more than we have in our budget.

‘We can scale back our plans but we would much rather try and get the funding to pull off an event that people will talk about for a long time. The crowdfunder offers a range of rewards including T-shirts, artworks and sponsorship packages, and we want to thank Portsmouth City Council for offering £2,500 in match funding.’

Angela Parks of Articulate Sage a Southsea-based arts consultancy who have purchased one of the sponsorship packages said: ‘This is a brilliant project. Articulate Sage are thrilled to provide support so some of the country’s best creatives can produce work for this city.

‘At a time when environmental issues are becoming critical it is great to see the arts being used to spread important messages whilst entertaining people. I urge other companies to look at the sponsorship opportunities.’

The crowdfunder can be found at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/octopusstory#start. It so far raised £5,150 of its £7,500 target.

The project has already seen a day-long event at St Mary’s Church in Fratton to mark World Oceans Day, and a series of workshops with creatives on how to make immersive theatre.

It was all inspired by the poetry story, Octopus Medicine, written by Becci Louise.

The money comes from the Community Infrastructure Levy fund (CIL), which allows local authorities to raise funds from developers who are undertaking new building projects in their area.