Sky Arts is offering five young artists £30,000 each to fund their work for a full year as part of the Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund – in association with IdeasTap. Having just announced the two winners of round one, and IdeasTap are now on the lookout for three more talented artists to fund.

Sky Arts recognises that there’s an incredible amount of young talent in the arts today, but finding a way to get your work made is an ever-present challenge. The Futures Fund is designed to help bridge the gap between formal education and becoming a working artist.

Whether you want to direct a piece of theatre, choreograph a new dance piece, write a novel, record an album, create a sculpture or produce a live art performance, Sky Arts will give you the time and money to make it happen. We’ll also pair you with a mentor from Sky to help you develop your networks, skills and knowledge in the arts and the commercial sector.

The Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund is open to individual artists working in visual art, theatre, performance art, film, music, dance or literature.

To apply, you must be an IdeasTap member aged 18-30 by the closing date, 24 Feb 2012, and either be a citizen of the UK or Ireland or have been resident in the UK or Ireland for the last five years. Either way, you must currently be living in the UK or Ireland to apply. It’s free to become an IdeasTap member and just takes a few minutes – sign up here.

Explain how the Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund bursary can help take your work to the next level and you could be in with the chance of receiving one of three £30,000 bursaries, as well as an opportunity to showcase your work on Sky Arts – be it on TV, online or on demand.

Three winners will be selected during this round of funding.

See www.ideastap.com for more information.