Wear it Purple x Arts and Culture
Wear it Purple has given over $80k in sponsorship to various queer arts and culture projects. From short film to web series, touring arts projects to Trans and Gender Diverse writing groups, documentaries and youth events. We’ve witnessed the impact funding important queer stories and spaces makes for rainbow young people.
We want to continue fostering community, giving hope, celebrating queer joy and building prouder futures. So… we’ve decided to strengthen our support of arts and culture in 2023.
We will be introducing a yearly grant for arts and culture projects FOR and BY LGBTQIA+ young people. The focus of each year's grants will be determined by the Wear it Purple Youth Action Council, the rainbow young people who lead the organisation. We’ve seen first-hand how many meaningful projects are happening and we want to ensure they continue to flourish and make a difference.
To manage these grants and cultivate Wear it Purple’s contribution to arts and culture we are awarding an annual Arts Leader Fellowship to an LGBTIQA+ young person working in arts and culture. The recipient of this fellowship will also be awarded $20k to develop and deliver an arts and culture project of their choice that will benefit the lives of rainbow young people.
We’re very excited to announce that the 2023 Arts Leader Fellowship Recipient is Claudia Bailey. Claud is an award-winning non-binary filmmaker. They make work that celebrates queerness and aim to tell stories that can facilitate change and create tangible impact to better the lives of LGTBQIA+ young folk.
Claud’s latest short, RIGHT HERE, received funding from Wear it Purple and has since screened at festivals all over the world. It is about 15-year-old Grace who, after coming out as non-binary to their parents, materializes at their future selves’ birthday party and realizes everything they want to be is inside of them.
Claud will be using the fellowship grant to bring RIGHT HERE to schools around Australia, in order to get it in front of young Trans, Non-binary and Gender Non-conforming follk who need to see it.
“I’m so thankful that Wear it Purple is giving me this opportunity to make a real difference with my film. When you’re a teenager, you cannot control your environment. RIGHT HERE promises these folk that even if their current situation isn’t great, they have community and love waiting for them. To hold on. To remember that they have so much joy coming their way. Getting RIGHT HERE to schools has always been my ultimate goal and so, I’m so thankful for Wear it Purple allowing this dream to become a reality,” - Claudia Bailey