East Herts Council has awarded £19,503 of lottery money to 28 artists and groups for September and October events. Here is the full list of who got what.

Twenty-eight artists, choirs, colleges, museums and community groups across East Herts will share £19,503 to put on arts events in September and October. The awards were signed off on 12 August and cover Arts in East Herts 2026, the district’s third annual arts showcase.

The money does not come from council tax. It comes from ticket sales for the East Herts Lottery (published decision, 12 August 2026).

Three Bishop’s Stortford organisations are on the list, along with recipients in Much Hadham, Buntingford, Hertford, Ware, Standon and High Wych:

  • Bishop’s Stortford College, £800
  • Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia, £800
  • Hertford Art Society, £800
  • Hertford Regional College, £800
  • Bishop’s Stortford Arts Society, £776
  • Herts Building Preservation Trust (Much Hadham Forge Museum), £600
  • Much Hadham Drama Group, £577
  • St James Church, High Wych, £500
  • Standon Sings, £450
  • Buntingford Writers Group, £360
  • Ware and District Photographic Society, £150

Every award in full

The maximum grant was £800. Eighteen of the 28 applicants were given the full amount, and ten received less than they could have asked for.

Recipient Award
& by Donna Reeves £800
All Sorts Dementia Group CIO £800
ArtVibe Community £800
Becky Harley £800
Bishop’s Stortford College £800
Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia £800
Bryony Applegate £800
Eloise Pilbeam £800
Hazel Russell £800
Hertford Art Society £800
Hertford Regional College £800
Herts Book Festival £800
Jade Dawn Designs £800
Lauren Wilson (on behalf of Ore Projects) £800
Manic Ceramics £800
Master Art Workshops £800
Olha Revina £800
Rubino Wilson £800
Drawing Voices £794
Bishop’s Stortford Arts Society £776
Herts Building Preservation Trust (Much Hadham Forge Museum) £600
Much Hadham Drama Group £577
Parsonage Residents Association £500
St James Church, High Wych £500
Standon Sings £450
Sarah Hollis £396
Buntingford Writers Group £360
Ware and District Photographic Society £150

Where the £20,000 came from

The pot was £20,000, made up of £10,000 carried forward from the 2025/26 financial year and a further £10,000 allocated for 2026/27. Both were in the council budget finalised on 4 March 2026. With £19,503 awarded, £497 of the pot is unallocated.

The 28 Arts in East Herts 2026 grants, largest to smallest Column chart of all 28 grants awarded. Eighteen applicants received the maximum grant of 800 pounds. The remaining ten received 794, 776, 600, 577, 500, 500, 450, 396, 360 and 150 pounds. Total awarded 19,503 pounds from a pot of 20,000 pounds. Eighteen of the 28 grants went out at the £800 maximum Every Arts in East Herts 2026 award, largest to smallest. Each column is one recipient. £800 £0 18 awards at the £800 maximum 10 awards below it, from £794 down to £150 £150 Total awarded £19,503 from a £20,000 pot, leaving £497 unallocated. Columns start at zero. Source: East Herts Council published decision, Arts in East Herts 2026 grants, 12 August 2026. Graphic by Bishop's Stortford News
The smallest award, £150, went to Ware and District Photographic Society. The largest, £800, went to 18 of the 28 applicants.

Recipients do not get the money up front. The decision report states that successful applicants receive a grant offer letter, and that funds are paid only after the activities have been delivered and the group has sent the council evidence of what it spent, meaning invoices and receipts.

The scheme may not be the council’s to run for much longer

One line in the report is worth noting for anyone planning to apply in future. Explaining how applications were scored, it says the approach favoured artists new to Arts in East Herts and applicants who could reach more people, “thus ensuring value for money, whilst encouraging new artists that hadn’t taken part before”. It then adds that this matters “before it is potentially handed over to an arts charity from 2027 onwards”.

The council has not said which charity, or announced a decision. As things stand, 2026 is the third and possibly the last year East Herts Council runs the showcase itself.

The grant round opened at 10am on Monday 22 June and closed at noon on Monday 20 July. Councillor Alex Daar, the executive member for communities, reviewed the proposed list and confirmed agreement on 10 August. The decision was then taken by Jonathan Geall, director for communities, under a delegation in the council’s constitution covering grants that improve local people’s health and wellbeing.

What it means for you

There will be a lot on, and some of it will be free. The council’s own funding criteria ask projects to “offer at least some activities at no cost to participants”, to run activities on more than one occasion during the showcase, and to give young people a way to be directly involved (Arts in East Herts, East Herts Council).

The programme runs across September and October. Individual event dates and booking details come from the groups themselves and are collected on the council’s Arts in East Herts hub. The 2026 programme had not been published there when we checked on 19 August.

Applications are closed for this year. The window shut on 20 July, so groups that missed it are waiting on whether the scheme runs again in 2027 and who runs it.

For scale, the council says more than 170 events took place under the banner last year (East Herts Council, 22 June 2026), and that over 40 arts organisations took part, from visual and performing arts and artisan crafts through to galleries, museums and heritage sites.

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