Freelands Studio Fellowships 2027

About the Freelands Studio Fellowships

Fellowships were once a staple of the art education landscape, providing a vital first step in many artists’ careers by enabling them to develop their own practice within an educational context that embeds making alongside learning and teaching.

Since 2021, the Freelands Studio Fellowship has continued this legacy by offering early career artists the opportunity to undertake a one-year, full-time, paid studio residency. This allows them to immerse themselves within the academic community and artistic ecology of an art school, in one of seven participating universities across the UK.

For the artist on the fellowship, working alongside art students and a faculty of tutors, lecturers and technicians, encourages them to examine their own practice, responding to tools and thoughts available within (and at times unique to) an educational context, while building their own approach to teaching.

About the opportunity

All Fellows on the programme will receive:

• Access to a studio space and a range of research, technical and workshop facilities to develop and diversify their practice.
• Dedicated mentorship.
• The opportunity to develop a teaching practice, working alongside staff and supporting students through workshops, crits and tutorials.
• The opportunity for a solo presentation of their work, such as an exhibition, either onsite at the university or at another nearby location arranged by the university.
• A £28,000 bursary and further support towards their creative and professional development, including spending a day at another partner university as a visiting lecturer.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to artists with a studio-based practice or a practice that would benefit from full-time studio space, working in any medium, and who have received an Undergraduate or Master's degree from one of our partner art schools:

• Bath School of Art, Film and Media, Bath Spa University.
• Birmingham School of Art, Birmingham City University.
• Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University.
• Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee.
• Falmouth School of Art, Falmouth University.
• Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
• Belfast School of Art, Ulster University.

Please note, those with a PhD/ doctorate are not eligible.

For full application guidance and eligibility criteria, download the application guidance document here.

There will be an online information session at 1pm on Tuesday 29 September. Find out more and sign up here.

If you have any questions related to eligibility or the application process, please contact fellowships@freelandsfoundation.co.uk.