The Arts Foundation is thrilled to announce a significant increase to our Fellowship Award – Doubling the amount from £10,000 to £20,000 – with Total Annual Grants of £115,000 – to Support Independent Artists in response to the Cost of Living Crisis.
The decision to raise the fellowship award amount underscores the foundation’s ongoing commitment to nurturing and supporting independent artists and creatives across the UK, providing them with the financial freedom to pursue their creative development and realise their artistic potential at a pivotal moment in their careers.
We have taken this important step to ensure our work 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.
Our Director, Mary Jane Edwards said:
“We are delighted to announce this critical development to double the Fellowship Award, as we recognise the growing financial pressures facing independent artists today. This increase is not only about providing more funding; it’s about affirming our belief in the transformative power of the arts and the critical role that artists and creatives play in society. The legacy of the foundation’s work is clear, with past fellows often going on to establish genre-defining practices that resonate for years to come – but as with all extraordinary artistic endeavours, this can only be achieved with tangible financial investment and the time and space to take risks, today.”
Since its inception in 1993, the charity has offered financial support to a diverse range of artistic practitioners through its fellowship programme, the Arts Foundation Futures Awards, including those in disciplines that often lack support from traditional funding avenues. The increase in the fellowship award will see the foundation become one of the UK’s largest unconditional funders of individual artists, unique in its support across art forms – from Dance, Design, Film, Literature, Music, and Theatre to Visual Art.
Filmmaker Asif Kapadia who is an Ambassador and past Film Directing Fellow (2001) of the Arts Foundation said:
“I was fortunate enough to be awarded the Fellowship for Film Directing way back in 2001 when I had just directed my first feature film. The award had a real, profound impact on me. It gave me both security and confidence, but more critically, it gave me the opportunity to think, I wasn’t forced to find another project, I could take my time and work out what I truly wanted to do next, which I feel helped me form a career over the long term. This type of patient, no-strings-attached funding is so scarce in the UK, it’s really a miracle. I particularly love the diverse range of creatives the Arts Foundation supports each year, this is what makes the Arts Foundation unique and special. I feel this award is needed more than ever as the arts and artists are under attack, they need support. I’m really proud to be a past Fellow, and I think it’s fantastic to see the Art Foundation increase its award of independent artists in this vital way.”
Read the full Press Release online here.
For Media Enquiries: Dennis Chang, Bolton & Quinn: dennis@boltonquinn.com
For General Enquiries, Partnerships and Award Sponsorship opportunities please contact, Mary Jane Edwards: info@artsfoundation.co.uk