Sapling Fund
The Sapling Fund is a collaborative initiative between the Cultural Institute and the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, previously known as Interdisciplinary Research Innovation Fund (IRIF).
This fund aims to support University of Leeds researchers in developing interdisciplinary research or impact projects within the arts and humanities, through collaboration with partners from the cultural, arts, or third sector, outside of Higher Education.
The Sapling Fund supports projects based on pre-existing relationships where both parties have identified a mutual area of interest. The goal is to nurture these new ideas, enhancing their potential to secure larger grants in the future in collaboration with chosen partner.
The fund encourages projects that may include community co-production, partnerships with creative, arts, or cultural organisations, or collaborations with Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM), the third sector, or cultural industries.
Since the Fund’s inception, we have supported 13 projects exploring topics around:
- arts and abolitionist futures
- community-led filmmaking on food sustainability
- digital archives
- sound art and generational changes.
Explore Sapling projects
A Somali Village
In 2024, we supported Dr Fozia Bora in collaboration with the Anglo-Somali Society, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Everyday Muslim, Bradford City of Culture 2025, the University of Bradford, and the Bradford Literature Festival.
This project uncovered the buried history of ‘A Somali Village in Colonial Bradford’. It is a response to ‘The Great Exhibition’ held in the city’s Lister Park in 1904, which featured the ‘Somali Village’, in which 100 Somali individuals lived in a walled compound, attracting 348,550 visitors.
This Sapling-funded project marked the first steps towards Bradford acknowledging the Somali Village and engaged the UK Somali community, the multilingual Bradford community, and the general public. The project included workshops and co-curated cultural outputs reinterpreting this history. Dr Bora also featured in a BBC Sounds podcast discussing the project.
A Teaspoon of Shampoo
In 2024, Theatre in the Mill, supported by the Sapling Fund, collaborated with community members from Manningham and the University of Leeds to developa play: ‘A Teaspoon of Shampoo’.
This production, led by Dr Shabina Aslam, delved into the story of Dr Muhammed Saeed, a charming but fraudulent doctor exposed in 1990.
Dr Rob Eagle from the University of Leeds led the integration of archival material and digital elements, exploring how audiences perceive the relationship between physical objects, digital content, and live performance.
Workshops with community and professional actors culminated in a scratch performance in summer 2024. The project aimed to bring fresh interpretations of Bradford’s recent past and was set to lead to a full production in 2025, coinciding with Bradford’s year as the UK City of Culture. Learn more about the play in an article in the Independent.