£500,000 boost for Pop Up Projects

The non-profit organisation Pop Up Projects has received £509,754 in funding to expand its children’s literature festival programme nationwide, including developing a bespoke festival for children with special needs in Kent.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has given £176,393 which, along with a £75,000 grant from the Kent Special Educational Needs Trust, will be used to create accessible literary events at heritage sites across the county. The money will also be used to develop creative training for teachers and produce media resources to help schools engage with contemporary children’s books.

The Rothschild Foundation has contributed £137,461 to Pop Up Projects to roll out its national schools literature festival across Buckingham and Oxfordshire. This will be match-funded by £60,000 from participating schools and enable the organisation to reach 3,000 children in primary, secondary and SEN schools. It will also give 4,500 books to school libraries.

Finally, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature £60,900 to send writers and artists into schools in Nottingham to create graphic novels inspired by DH Lawrence.

Dylan Calder, founder of Pop Up Projects, said: “Through these three awards, Pop Up is extending its work across the country into new regions to deliver incredible, sustained literary experiences and opportunities for children and young people of every age, many of them in circumstances that would otherwise prevent them from engaging with live literature.

“The opportunity to work with so many children with special educational needs and disabilities and on a county-wide scale is a major step-up for us. We fully expect their experiences to impact on the authors involved, inspiring their own books and bringing SEN identities and perspectives into the stories they make.”