Major £1.5m Awards Initiative Launches to Support UK Visual Art Education
A significant new awards scheme worth £1.5 million has been unveiled to champion and celebrate visual art education across the United Kingdom. The Freelands Foundation announced the programme on Monday, committing to award £100,000 each to three organisations every year for the next five years.
Addressing Years of Underinvestment in Arts Education
The scheme has been developed as a direct response to what the foundation describes as fifteen years of sustained underinvestment and neglect within the art education infrastructure. This period has witnessed a marked decline in art subjects being taught in schools, a reduction in university art courses, and significant cuts to educational programmes run by galleries and museums.
Despite these mounting pressures from dwindling funding and increasing operational costs, visual arts organisations continue to serve as vital hubs for teaching and learning. The awards aim to reaffirm the core educational mission of these cultural institutions.
Celebrating Innovation and Resilience
"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," stated Henry Ward, the director of the Freelands Foundation. He emphasised the broad educational role these spaces play, extending far beyond the traditional school curriculum.
"Galleries and museums play a significant role, not just within the curriculum and school education, but as resources to educate all of us," Ward explained. "Not only can they work with schools and universities, but they can work with local communities, artists, prisons, hospitals. There's a whole world of extraordinary educational practice out there."
Judging Panel and Award Details
The prestigious judging panel for the awards will be chaired by Henry Ward. It features a distinguished group of arts professionals, including the acclaimed artist and photographer Joy Gregory, television and radio presenter Gemma Cairney, curator and writer Jenni Lomax, and art historian and educator Ben Street.
The award is open to UK-based organisations that operate with a charitable purpose and maintain a consistent public programme of visual art. In addition to the unrestricted £100,000 funding, the three annual winners will collaborate with the Freelands Foundation to produce a case study film. This film will document their innovative art education work, serving as an inspirational resource for other institutions across the sector.
Application Timeline and Broader Context
The open call for submissions will commence on 28 January and conclude on 30 March. The first cohort of winners is scheduled to be announced at a special celebration event in November.
This new award replaces the foundation's previous annual prize, which ran for eight years and focused on supporting exhibitions by mid-career female artists. The shift in focus underscores a strategic move to directly bolster educational outreach and infrastructure.
The launch comes amid a cautiously optimistic climate for arts education, following recent government proposals to overhaul the national curriculum, including the potential scrapping of the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc). Arts leaders have long argued that the Ebacc's introduction in 2011 negatively impacted school visits to cultural venues.
"If you're not taken into a gallery or museum as a child in a school, and your parents don't take you, you're unlikely to go as an adult. There's a knock-on effect," Ward noted, highlighting the long-term consequences of reduced access. He also pointed out that learning specialists are often the first casualties during funding cuts, making the resilience of the awarded organisations all the more commendable.
