MEET THE JUDGES

We are happy to reveal the independent judges for Round 2 of our Creators' Fund.

Tomiwa Folorunso, Matthew Hickman and Shola McAfro have successfully helped select 7 recipients who will each receive £500 and mentoring to help progress with professional development

The Creators’ Fund is now raising funds for Round 3, you can donate HERE

We have enlisted three judges to select our Creators’ Fund Round 2 recipients. Please meet them below:

Tomiwa Folorunso is a Nigerian-Scottish writer, cultural producer, and Cultural Studies MA student at KU Leuven. In 2021 Tomiwa co-programmed ‘Welcome To’ at Glasgow Film Festival. Tomiwa is currently producing a short film about Maud Sulter with Rhubaba Studio and Galleries (Scotland).

Tomiwa has written for gal-dem, the Herald and The National, and contributed to Monstrous Regiment’s anthology ‘So Hormonal’. She has been the sub-editor for Fringe of Colour Film’s Responses since 2020. Tomiwa was previously the Black Ballad regional editor for Scotland and in 2020, presented the BBC Radio 4 Documentary; The Art of Now: Black and Creative in Scotland.

Hailing from Ayrshire, Matt Hickman is better known as brownbear.

The release of their debut single ‘Dead or Alive’ in 2014 saw the band gain radio play on Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio Scotland and playlisted on Radio X. They were then invited to support The Libertines at the Barrowlands reunion show before joining them at Alexandra Palace in London, Hyde Park BST & several European dates of the reunion tour. They also enjoyed a great festival run that year including T in the Park (BBC Introducing) , Blue Balls (Switzerland) & Belladrum (Main Stage) before heading into the studio to start work on their debut album ‘What is Home?’.

More recently, Hickman has come into the spotlight for his composing for soundtrack and the start of producing his first short film Stop the World, having successfully been one of the awardees of GMAC Film’s Little Pictures development fund.

Shola McAfro is a content creator, writer and presenter who has been involved in the creative industries for over a decade. Following opportunities in modelling and interviewing musicians for a variety of projects, she started creating content for BBC The Social in 2017. Shola joined the Sunny G Community Radio team that same year, using this as an opportunity to feature a plethora of genres of music from Africa, Asia, Caribbean and South America in an attempt to cater to people of non-Western and mixed backgrounds. Shola is also a featured writer for BBC series Raiders Of The Lost Archive series 1 and 2.