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2025

The Arts Foundation is a registered charity that supports individual artists and creatives in the UK with unconditional financial Fellowships through the Arts Foundation Futures Awards.

Since 1993 the Arts Foundation has awarded over £2 million to the most promising artists in the UK at a pivotal moment in their careers to enable them to concentrate on their creative development, experiment, and realise their artistic potential.

Historically, the annual Arts Foundation Futures Awards has provided five transformative £10,000 Fellowships, with all Shortlisted Artists receiving £1,000 towards the development of their practice. In September 2024 the Arts Foundation announced that it had raised the Fellowship Award amount to £20,000 to ensure it continues to have the same life-changing impact and responds to inflation, the ongoing cost of living crisis and low artist income precarity experienced across the contemporary arts in the UK.

For 2025 we are delighted to support the award categories: Dance, Design, Film, Theatre and Visual Art.

The 20 shortlisted artists across all award categories will be announced here on 8 January 2025.

The five artists and creatives receiving the no-strings-attached £20,000 Fellowship will be announced at a celebratory Award Ceremony in late February 2025 in London, with all shortlisted creatives receiving £1,000.

With thanks to our award partners for their support and belief in the importance of artists and creative practice: The David Collins Foundation and The Yoma Sasburg Estate, and development support partners, The Maria Björnson Memorial Fund.

Nominations Network

The Arts Foundation is fortunate to collaborate with a range of professionals close to our award-category disciplines who feed into the nomination process. The nominations network changes annually and supports us in identifying the most promising artists and creatives living and working in the UK who are at a pivotal moment in the development of their practice and career trajectory.

With special thanks to this year’s nominations network of established professionals, artists and creative practitioners, academics, and subject experts from across the UK:

Alessio Antoniolli, Rose Baker, Ema Boswood, Aaron Cezar, David Chambers, Anita Clark, Aldona Cunningham, Suba Das, Adam Davies, Daniel Davies, Sue Emmas, Alexander Ferris, Rodrigo García González, Dr. Stephen Green, Marina Hadjilouca, Catherine Hemelryk, Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Belinda Holden, Mary Ann Hushlak, Philip Ilson, Cheryl Jones, Rob Jones, Jessica Kiang, Chris Kumar, Larissa Kunstel-Tabet, Robert Leckie, Katrina Lindsay, Jude Lister, Matt Lloyd, Georgia Lowe, Dr Russell Maliphant OBE, Peter McKintosh, Joe Moran, Charlie Morrissey, Nephertiti Oboshie Schandorf, Cassa Pancho, Lindsay Poulton, Louise Shannon, Matthias Sperling, Melissa Sterry, Nicolas Raffin, Vicky Richardson, Paul Ridd and Salma Tuqan, and all those who wish to remain anonymous.

 

Image Credits: Alex Baczynski Jenkins (Performing Arts Fellow, 2018), Until a thousand roses bloom (with Warsaw in the background), 2018; Elissa Brunato, (Materials Innovation Fellow, 2022) Pipe Anatomy, 2021. Photo by Olivia Lifungulia; Onyeka Igwe (Experimental Short Film Fellow, 2020), Film Still, The Miracle on George Green. 2022; Claire Lizzimore (Theatre Directing Fellow, 2009) Closer at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre Photo by Marc Brenner; Lydia Ourahmane (Visual Arts Fellow, 2018) Tassili, 2022.