Cash grants are being offered to encourage involvement in the arts.

Arts Council England awarded almost £1.5 million to the consortium Creative People and Places: Swale and Medway last summer.

It is to be spent on creative activities and is designed to encourage those who are not usually interested in the arts to give it a go.

The idea is that community groups, such as Scouts and Brownies, or Women’s Institutes, will apply for the money, which is then to be used on creative activities.

There are different strands to the funding, including grants of up to £2,000 which is for “small experiments”.

These are to turn people’s ideas into projects – possibly a community group which wants help to design a new sign or to buy a piece of equipment which will help with an art project.

Another part is the “out of ordinary” projects, which can be given grants of up to £30,000.

However, this funding will not be released until April next year, when more information will be available.

The third strand is the community catalyst, which is for people who do a lot for their local area.

Once they are nominated they can apply for up to £5,000 to help other residents start art projects.

A number of activities on the Island have already been funded by Creative People and Places, including the sheep trail as part of the Promenade Festival and the Love Sheppey art event in the summer.

Travis Illsley, from Sheerness, has been nominated as a community catalyst for the work he has done at Sheppey Community Media Centre.

The 21-year-old volunteers at Sheppey FM and has led a number of training projects while there to help young people. He also sourced his own funding for some of them.

Although he has yet to decide how to use the grant money, he said he was delighted to have been chosen.