Prime Highlights:

• Freelands Foundation launches a £1.5 million awards scheme, giving £100,000 each year to three UK organisations supporting innovative visual art education.
• The awards celebrate organisations continuing “incredible work” despite years of underfunding and cuts to art education.

Key Facts:

• The awards run for five years, with submissions open from 28 January to 24 March, and winners announced at a November celebration event.
• Each winner receives £100,000 in unrestricted funding and collaborates with Freelands Foundation on a case study film to share their educational work.

Background:

A new £1.5 million awards programme has been launched to recognise and celebrate visual art education across the UK. The Freelands Foundation announced that three organisations will receive £100,000 each year for the next five years, supporting projects that demonstrate commitment to progressive art education with tangible impact.

The initiative responds to a long period of underinvestment in the UK’s art education infrastructure over the past 15 years. During this period, schools have cut back on art subjects, universities offer fewer art courses, and galleries and museums have reduced their education programmes.

Despite these challenges, visual arts organisations continue to play a vital role in teaching and learning. The Freelands Foundation’s new awards scheme aims to reaffirm galleries and museums as centres for public education and champion innovative approaches to art learning.

Henry Ward, director of Freelands Foundation, said: “We wanted to champion organisations that are still managing to do incredible work against the backdrop of 15 years of cuts and anti-art rhetoric. Galleries and museums educate not just within schools and universities, but also local communities, hospitals, prisons, and beyond. There’s a whole world of extraordinary educational practice out there.”

The award is open to UK-based organisations with a charitable purpose that offer consistent public presentation of visual art.

The judging panel is chaired by Ward and includes artist Joy Gregory, TV and radio presenter Gemma Cairney, curator and writer Jenni Lomax, and art historian and educator Ben Street. Submissions open on 28 January and close on 24 March, with the first winners announced at a celebration event in November.

This new scheme replaces Freelands Foundation’s previous award, which supported UK arts organisations presenting exhibitions by mid-career female artists between 2016 and 2023. Arts leaders have welcomed the shift, highlighting its potential to strengthen creative education at a time when the national curriculum is evolving and schools continue to face budget pressures.

The £1.5 million programme is being hailed as a significant step in nurturing visual arts education and ensuring that galleries and museums remain vibrant spaces for learning across the UK.

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