Finding, applying for, and getting opportunities in the visual arts

As a freelance artist or art worker it can often feel like you spend more time sitting at a desk applying to opportunities than doing ‘the art’ part of your work. It’s an important part of the arts ecosystem that helps to fund new work, share your practice and develop a sustainable creative career - but it isn’t the thing that drives many of us to work in the arts.

For 4 years I worked with independent funder Jerwood Arts (now merged into Jerwood Foundation) thinking about how best to support early career artists, curators and producers in the UK to develop and thrive in their practices. Creating new opportunities for funding, residencies, commissions and artist development gave me a unique insight into this complex landscape and gave me the privilege of reading hundreds – maybe thousands – of applications from brilliant artists looking for support in their next steps. Now working as an independent curator, I am not often in a position to offer well-resourced opportunities, which makes me even more committed to keeping an eye on what is happening across the sector. Being able to share opportunities I see with my networks and stay part of always evolving conversations about ‘best practice’ is important to how I want to work in the visual art sector.

This resource aims to provide some practical advice and insights from my experience of applying for, creating, and selecting for opportunities in the visual arts to help you with your next steps – whether that is as an artist or working in another creative role in the sector (e.g. curator, producer). Throughout the text ‘opportunities’ refers to anything that supports you in developing your professional practice including residencies, commissions, funded projects, artist development programmes, mentoring, prizes and funding.

A list of regular opportunities and listings can be found at the bottom of the resource. I’d recommend reading this in conjunction with VASW commissioned A guide to funding for early career artists by Catherine Herbert which includes many excellent tips and links.

IMAGE - Rebecca Moss, A Panel Discussion, 2019. Commissioned for Jerwood Staging Series at Jerwood Space, London. Photo, Hydar Dewachi. Jerwood Staging Series is an opportunity that selected artists to participate.

Before you apply

At any stage of your career it can feel demoralising to keep applying for opportunities and receiving rejections – even now 15 years into my practice I sometimes need to take a break from looking at what is out there to care for my mental health and remind myself of my goals. It is really useful to regularly have a step back to think about what you want to achieve at this moment, e.g. Are you looking for an exhibition opportunity? Do you need a commission to make new work? Is a residency or funding useful to research an idea? Are you in need of mentoring support to plan your next steps?

It can be easy to despair at the competitiveness of application processes, the lack of well-structured and properly paid projects, and the geographic inequalities in the number of arts opportunities available. However, it’s also useful to remember that applying for opportunities is an investment of time in your creative practice which can be helpful to:

• Refine ideas – sometimes the questions asked in application processes are a good way to refine a new idea or bring clarity to something you are struggling with. If you aren’t successful for the opportunity you have applied for you’ll be in a stronger position to move forward with your next steps or apply to other similar opportunities.
• Get feedback from professionals – while not all organisations have capacity to do this, some will be able to provide feedback to applicants to help strengthen their ideas for the next thing they apply to. When I worked at Jerwood Arts we committed to giving individual feedback to anyone who requested it. While this was time-consuming, it was also a really rewarding process for the team and showed respect for the time artists and art workers had put into their applications.
• Share your practice – even if you aren’t successful in the opportunity you have applied for, those who are involved in the selection process have engaged with your work and ideas. As a curator it is a privilege to read applications and I often follow the work of artists I come across in this process, sometimes going on to work with them in different capacities in the future.

Some of the best advice I have been given in recent years is to try to forget about the application as soon as you press submit – often easier said than done. I’ve found I can waste a lot of energy imagining what could happen if I get the opportunity, which can make it more disappointing if I don’t progress in the selection process. Ultimately, as soon as you have pressed send there is nothing further you can do and the next steps are out of your hands…so relax.

IMAGE - Paul Nataraj, Repetitions of 108: Counting Almost Nothing, 2024; Philippa Brown, A Summoning (I would shed my skin for you), 2024; Sam Keelan, Tired as the Land, 2024. Installation view of Jerwood Survey III at Southwark Park Galleries, London. Photo, Rita Silva. Jerwood Survey III is an opportunity which invited established artists to nominate early-career artists to be part of it.

Finding opportunities

The type of opportunity you are looking for will often dictate where you should look for it, and there are many platforms and organisations who regularly update listings for current applications. See the bottom of this resource for a fuller list sorted by type of opportunity.

Online Platforms: there are lots of organisations who regularly post opportunities for artists and art workers on their websites or online platforms. The arts councils in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have a dedicated listings website and there are also organisations working nationally (A-N, Artquest, ArtRabbit), internationally (British Council, Resartis), or in medium specific sectors (Call for Curators, Film London, LUX, Live Art Development Agency (LADA), Turps, Siobhan Davies Dance, Sound and Music). Bookmarking some of these in your browser can make it easy to regularly do a quick check of what is new.

Mailing lists and Newsletters: it can be time consuming searching websites for opportunities so signing up to mailing lists and newsletters can help to reduce the admin time you spend on this part of your professional practice. I personally like to receive as much as possible direct to my email, but if you don’t enjoy a full inbox I recommend prioritising 2-3 general listing newsletters, any that are specific to the type of work you make (e.g. film, painting, performance) and signing up for mailing lists for your local and regional arts organisations who will often have opportunities for artists based in your area (such as Visual Arts South West).

Networking: building relationships with peers and networks in the visual arts sector can be a really good way to become aware of opportunities. This could be from other artists or arts workers sharing opportunities they have seen, learning about opportunities your peers have previously been awarded, or hearing about opportunities that aren’t available through public open calls. Attending talks, events and workshops can be a really helpful way to hear about things you might not be aware of, as well as asking others what they have found helpful for their practice.

It is worth noting that the opportunities you are eligible for may fluctuate throughout your career and depending on where you live. While the national arts councils will generally fund artists and arts workers at any stage of their career across the UK, other opportunities like prizes, commissions or residencies may be targeted at a particular stage of practice where they feel they can have the most impact, or be based in a specific location with limited funds to support travel for artists based elsewhere. In my experience there are often less developmental opportunities available for mid-career artists but lots if you are in the early stages of your career or recently graduated from higher education, and a higher proportion of opportunities based around the capital cities across the UK. For this reason, it can be helpful to make the most of the momentum of a new body of work and good quality documentation as a new graduate, in order to demonstrate your ideas on a scale that is harder to achieve alone in the studio.

TOP TIPS FOR FINDING OPPORTUNITIES:

1. Think outside of the normal platforms – there are some good opportunities to be found outside of regular visual arts platforms, particularly in collaboration with local arts organisations, cultural festivals, and council initiatives. Try to connect with organisations and networks based near you in order to find opportunities that specifically support artists based in the immediate area as a way to build experience and new work early in your career. This might include joining your nearest gallery’s young artists group, signing up to mailing lists for local cultural events or trying to get to know your council’s arts officer.
2. Be generous with your networks – share opportunities that you find with your peers and networks, and they will often share things back that are relevant for you. It is really important not to slip into a scarcity mindset of seeing peers as competition – there are a lot of opportunities out there and they are all suitable for different types of artists and arts workers at varied stages in their practice. Many artists I know have found it creatively stimulating to work collectively or to collaborate with peers on individual projects in order to apply for opportunities.
3. Save yourself time – sign up to mailing lists and newsletters, register alerts for particular types of opportunities, and set diary reminders if you know a regular open call is due. Anything you can do to reduce the admin around opportunities gives you more time to focus on your practice.
4. Don’t look sideways – try to be honest with yourself about what you need at this point in your practice to move your work forward. It can be easy to see peers exhibiting in prizes or getting residencies and feel like that is a marker of success you should be trying to match. Be confident in your own work and don’t get distracted from the goals and ideas you are personally trying to realise.

IMAGE - Keiken + George Jasper Stone, Feel My Metaverse, 2019. Installation view at Jerwood Space, London. Commissioned for Jerwood Collaborate!. Photo, Anna Arca. Jerwood Collaborate! is an opportunity which invited curators across the UK to nominate artists to be part of it.

Deciding if it’s the right opportunity

It takes a lot of time and headspace to fully read guidance and make an application for each opportunity you apply to – time that is normally unpaid and unlikely to be reimbursed even if you are successful. When you find an opportunity you are interested in it can be good to take a moment to check if it is right for you before committing to it. Some questions you can ask to help yourself reflect:

• Is it a good fit for you right now? It’s useful to reflect honestly on whether an opportunity helps you achieve your goals at this particular moment. Often opportunities may look wonderful, but actually take you away from what you are trying to achieve. Many run annually or biennially so sometimes you might be better to wait and apply at a time that is right for you.
• Is it feasible? Sometimes the right opportunity comes along at the wrong time. Assess whether you have the time and resources to get the most out of it.
• Are you eligible? If you aren’t sure, ask! For example, sometimes in the visual arts eligibility is based on the stage you are at in your career or the amount of time you have been working as a professional artist. This can look very different for different people, particularly if you have taken significant time away from your practice for health reasons, caring responsibilities, or to earn money to support living costs. If you think you might be eligible it is always worth getting in touch to explain your specific circumstance.
• Does it offer the support you need? Consider the financial and logistical support that the opportunity offers – is this enough for what you plan to do? If it isn’t or would result in compromise for the work you want to make it may not be the right opportunity for you. Some opportunities will allow you to apply for additional funding elsewhere, for example an international residency may not cover flights and living costs but is happy for you to apply to funders. Often commissions or prizes are less open to additional funders coming on board so it is important to think about what is possible for the resources offered.

I am always cautious of opportunities which charge a fee to apply and think very carefully about whether these are right for me. While this can be a key part of an organisation’s financial model that enables the opportunity to run, it creates a financial barrier that excludes many. In these situations, it is really important to be confident that this is a useful opportunity and at the right time for you, to be sure it is a good investment of your cash.

IMAGE - Heather Agyepong, ego death, 2022. Installation view at Jerwood Space, London. Commissioned for the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards. Photo, Anna Arca. Jerwood/Photoworks Awards is an opportunity which had a national open call for applications.

Applying for Opportunities

There are a lot of great resources and advice online about making applications (see A guide to funding for early career artists by Catherine Herbert) and also places like The White Pube Funding Library where artists and art workers have generously shared their examples of successful applications. Ultimately, the strongest applications tend to be tailored to the specific opportunity and articulate well why this is the right moment to support the applicant. Some initial steps to help you think about this might be:

• Understand the Opportunity – make sure you have read the guidelines carefully before starting your application to ensure your idea/proposal meets the aims of the opportunity. You may also find it useful to learn a little about the organisation running it – what is their mission, what type of work have they done previously, where is their money coming from – and look at who is on the selection panel. If you know anyone who has been successful in this opportunity previously you could reach out to them for a chat to understand their experience of it.
• Advice Sessions – many organisations hold advice or information sessions for applicants to their opportunities. This can be really useful in understanding if an idea you are applying for fits the brief or asking any questions that feel unclear. I would always recommend trying to attend any information sessions as they can often highlight things you haven’t thought about for your application yet. If there aren’t any advertised sessions don’t feel shy about reaching out to the organisation leading the opportunity with any questions you have prior to the deadline.
• Access Support – if you need access support and it isn’t clear what is available, don’t be nervous to ask for what you require. Organisations in the visual arts sector have got much better at providing clear guidance on what they can offer and will often accept applications in video format, provide funding for support workers and publish guidance materials in accessible formats.

Preparing Your Application
Opportunities will ask for different materials depending on their assessment criteria, some key things to bear in mind:

• CV – tailor your CV to the specific opportunity and make sure to include the most recent and relevant details first. (Artquest have a guide to writing an artist CV here).
• Key Moments – some organisations have moved away from using CVs as they can be seen to favour applicants who have experience working with recognisable organisations or attending prominent higher education institutions. If asked to describe key moments in your practice, think about the projects, prizes, awards and personal experiences that have been most influential on your journey so far.
• Artist Statement – avoid using jargon and try to ensure the way you describe your practice is clear and concise. It can be useful to have peers read your statement to see how closely it matches their understanding of your work too. (Read curator George Vasey’s reflections on artist statements here)
• Examples of Work – make sure that any images you submit are at the requested size and labelled clearly with what they are. If there is an option to, I often advise artists to submit a pdf of images where they can briefly describe what the image is, e.g. is it a detail of a work, part of a bigger installation, a photo from a public workshop.
• References – some opportunities will ask for references and there is nothing worse than getting to the end of your application and realising you haven’t got any ready. Keep in touch with tutors, curators, peers who know your work well and ask them if they are happy to be included as references for opportunities well in advance of the application deadline.

Crafting a Strong Application
Some of the strongest applications I have read are the ones that feel authentic to the artist and do not use overcomplicated language to explain what they want to do. Ambition is good, but it is important to make sure that what you are proposing is realistic within the resources available and that you will receive an appropriate fee too (Artist Union England, A-N). When I am assessing an application I normally want to understand:

• what is at stake in your practice?
• what you want to use this opportunity to do?
• why now is the time to do it?
• why this opportunity is the best one to help you achieve your goals?

Final touches
If you can, always ask a friend to proofread your application for you ahead of the deadline. Most assessors won’t mark you lower for spelling or bad grammar, but when you are up against a lot of very strong applications it can sometimes be mistaken for a lack of care.

Interviews
If you are shortlisted to attend an interview make sure you prepare as much as possible so that things go smoothly on the day. Some organisations will provide the questions they will ask in advance so it is worth asking for these if it is something you would find useful. Make sure you ask for any access accommodations you need to make sure you can be comfortable during the interview itself.

• Online – check you have a strong internet connection and a quiet, private place to do the interview. Have any images and documents you plan to share ready to go and email a copy to the interview panel in case of any technical hiccups. You may want to do a practice interview with a friend to check that you are confident sharing documents and speaking to a presentation on screen if that is requested.
• In Person – make sure you plan your route ahead of time and aim to arrive 10-15 minutes early so you can settle in. If you are bringing images on a laptop don’t forget your charger and it can be useful to bring printed copies of any materials too. If you are asked to bring original artworks to the interview think carefully about how to package and transport them so they don’t get damaged. Most interviews should cover candidates travel costs so ask this in advance to ensure you are not out of pocket.

TOP TIPS FOR APPLYING FOR OPPORTUNITIES

1. Test your idea on a friend – see if you can explain your proposal to a friend in just 1-2 sentences. Sometimes it can feel like you are explaining something very clearly but it doesn’t come across as succinctly to the person reading your application. Having a friend reflect back to you what they understand from your explanation can help you make sure you are communicating well and doing your idea justice.
   
2. Tailor your application to what you are applying for – although it can be a good timesaver, it is really important to tailor your application for the opportunity you are applying for. Think carefully about the images you show in relation to this particular application, how you talk about your artistic practice and how this aligns with the mission of the organisation running the opportunity. When assessing funding applications I have regularly read artist statements or proposals that have clearly been recycled from another opportunity - sometimes even accidentally including the name of the previous organisation they applied to.
3. Don’t chance it – if you aren’t sure you are eligible for an opportunity, and the guidelines don’t make this clear, get in touch with the organisation to ask. It is gutting to spend time writing a strong application to quickly find out it hasn’t even progressed to the assessment stage. Value the importance of your unpaid labour and make sure it is worth spending your time applying first.
4. Don’t be afraid to reapply – it can be really disappointing not getting an opportunity and easy to think that if you have been told ‘no’ once that will always be the case. In my experience this is not true and if the opportunity is still right for you the next time it is open for applications you should feel confident applying again – building on any feedback if you were given it. As a selection panellist I have often shortlisted artists who have applied multiple times, and have selected awardees who had applied 2-3 times before winning the award.

IMAGE – Susie Green, Couples Therapy (II), 2022. Installation view of HYPERAROUSAL at JW Anderson, London. Photo, Katrina Duffey. AWITA x JW Anderson was an opportunity that invited curators to propose an exhibition.

Getting and not getting opportunities

It’s important to remember that there is no one perfect application that will guarantee success. At the end of the day the people assessing your application will have a subjective opinion of your practice, application and suitability for the opportunity at this time.

Many of the stronger applications I have encountered are able to:

• Detail clearly what the applicant’s practice is about
• Present an exciting but realistic idea which is a step forward for their practice
• Show good quality images and/or supporting material that are relevant to their application
• Layout how the proposal is feasible within the budget and timeline for the opportunity
• Explain how this opportunity marks an important step in their practice
• Make a case for why this needs to happen now

Weaker applications might be:

• Unable to demonstrate a suitable artist fee (Artist Union England, A-N)
• Over ambitious in what can be achieved in the time or budget of the opportunity
• Unclear about the main aims and activity of the project
• Less able to explain why this is important in the artist or art workers professional trajectory
• Including images that are low quality, unlabelled, or don’t illustrate well what the artist or arts worker says their practice is about

There are a lot more applicants than opportunities so try not to be disheartened if you do receive rejections. Some examples of recent opportunity statistics:

• Arts Council England DYCP Fund Round 19 received 2,294 applications and supported 434 of them (18%)
• John Moores Painting Prize 2023 received over 3,000 applications, exhibited 70 of them (2.3%) and shortlisted 5 of them (0.2%)
  
• Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 4 received over 370 applications and made 2 awards (0.5%)
• Jerwood Curatorial Accelerator received 181 applications in 2022 and supported 11 curators (6%)

As you can imagine, with these levels of applicants some opportunities do not have capacity to give individual feedback to everyone, but if it is offered it can be really useful to strengthen your application in the future.

IMAGE – Forest + Found, The Subjective Element, 2019. Installation view at Jerwood Space, London. Commissioned for Jerwood Makers Open. Photo, Anna Arca. Jerwood Makers Open is an opportunity which had a national open call for applications.

What is out there?

Below is a summary of regular UK opportunities and listings websites organised by type:

General Opportunities:

• ACAVA resources – useful information for artists and creative practitioners about funding, grants, residencies, fellowships, open calls, work opportunities and wellbeing.
• A-N (The Artists Information Company) – the largest artists’ membership organisation in the UK with over 30,000 members. (*pay barrier for full access).
• Artsadmin Newsletter – regular jobs and opportunities via newsletter.
• Artquest – advice, opportunities and insight for visual artists.
• Arts Jobs – listings for jobs and opportunities across the UK, run by Arts Council England.
• Art Rabbit Opportunities – a selection of international open calls and opportunities for contemporary art-related competitions, prizes, exhibitions, awards, proposals, and grants for artists, writers and curators.
• British Council Arts Opportunities – current and upcoming international opportunities for artists, creatives, professionals and organisations.
• Call for Curators – (*pay barrier for full access) - specialises in spreading open calls from cultural organisations that need to reach curators and art managers.
• CVAN – regional networks list opportunities relevant for their visual arts sector.
• Curator Space – open call listings for exhibitions, projects and residencies.
• Disability Arts Online – jobs and opportunities listings with a particular focus on serving artists and arts audiences who face disabling barriers.
• Film London Artist Opportunities – current open call opportunities for artists working in film and moving image.
• Jobs.ac.uk – jobs, PhDs, opportunities and fellowships in the higher education sector.
• Live Art Development Agency – artistic and professional development opportunities for artists, curators, Higher Education and the Live Art infrastructure.
• LUX Newsletter – the latest news including new initiatives and opportunities for artists working in moving-image.
• Sound and Music – opportunities for those working with sound and music.
• Visual Arts Southwest – opportunities listing for the South West visual arts sector.
• Wooloo – international opportunities listings.

Residencies:

• AA2A – artist residencies at art and design institutions across the UK.
  
• British School in Rome – residencies for artists at different stages of their career to spend time developing their work in Rome.
• Creative Folkestone: Prospect Cottage – annual residency programme for research and development residencies at Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage.
• Cove Park – an international artists residency centre located on an outstanding rural site on Scotland's west coast.
• Delfina Foundation – open calls for specific residency opportunities at Delfina, often for artists based overseas.
• Fire Station Artist Studios – international curator residency programme based in Dublin.
• Fluxus Art Projects – an annual Magnetic Residency Programme connecting French and UK artists and institutions.
• Gasworks – open calls for specific residency opportunities at Gasworks, mainly for artists based overseas.
• Hospitalfield – residencies in Arbroath to support the production of new work and for artists to focus on questions, problems and ideas that will have an impact for them now and into the future.
• Hypha Studios – open calls for studio residencies and exhibition opportunities in empty spaces across the UK.
• Res Artis – worldwide network of artist residencies (check carefully as some charge fees).
• The Bothy Project – a unique and independent charity, providing arts residencies in bespoke small-scale, off-grid spaces to explore creativity, landscape and living simply.
• Van Gogh House – artist residencies in a unique heritage site, often international and proposed through nomination.
• Victoria & Albert Museum – annual open call residencies through the Adobe Creative Residency Programme.
• West Dean College – a residency programme that provides professional artists, writers, makers, and researchers the opportunity to work onsite in West Sussex for a period of one to three weeks.
• Wysing Arts Centre – residencies to support artists to make new work, explore new ways of working and make new collaborations.

Awards, Fellowships and Prizes:

• Arts Foundation Futures Award – an annual award of five £10,000 fellowships across art forms, identified by nomination.
  
• Cavendish Arts Science Fellowship – an annual fellowship to support artists to develop though-provoking ideas through engagement with physicists and those in other fields.
• FLAMIN Fellowship – a major development programme for early career artist filmmakers living in England.
• FVU: Michael O’Pray Prize – an award for new writing on innovation and experimentation in the moving image.
• Gilchrist-Fisher Award – a biennial prize open to artists under the age of 30 whose work explores the broad theme of landscape.
• International Awards for Arts Criticism – writing award for arts criticism open to entries in English and Chinese worldwide.
• Jerwood/Photoworks Awards – a biennial research and development opportunity supporting artists working with photography to make and exhibit new work.
• John Moores Painting Prize – a prize to bring together the best in contemporary British painting, supporting artists from across the UK at any stage in their career.
• Mark Tanner Sculpture Award – an award for emerging artists working in the field of sculpture in the UK.
• Paul Hamlyn Awards for Artists – a financial award for artists at a timely moment in their careers, identified by nomination.
• Stanley Picker Fellowship in Art & Design – supporting contemporary practitioners to research, create and present a significant body of new work as part of the innovative community at Kingston University.
• The Burlington Contemporary Art Writing Prize – an annual prize seeking to discover talented writers on contemporary art.
• Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize – an annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK. (formerly the Jerwood Drawing Prize.
  

Artist Development and Alternative Education:

• Black Curatorial – an organisation that creates opportunities for creative and curatorial growth for Black people globally.
  
• Conditions Studio Programme – a low-cost studio programme for artists, based in Croydon.
• New Curators – a paid twelve-month curatorial training programme based in London for aspiring curators of contemporary art from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
• Open School East – a free, independent art school and community space that focuses on collective learning through the arts.
• School of the Damned – a year-long alternative art course directed by its students.
• The Other MA (TOMA) – an 18-month artist-run learning programme based in Southend-on-Sea supporting artists who have faced barriers accessing art education and the ‘art world’.
• Turps Studio Programme – an opportunity for painters to embark on a year-long programme of intensive mentoring, seminars, crits and studio practice.
• Syllabus – a collaboratively produced alternative learning programme that supports ten artists across ten months, led by Wysing Arts Centre.

Funding (see A guide to funding for early career artists by Catherine Herbert):

• Arts Council of England – funding for individuals and organisations based in England.
• Arts Council of Northern Ireland – funding for individuals and organisations based in Northern Ireland.
• Arts Council of Wales – funding for individuals and organisations based in Wales.
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) – funds research in subjects from philosophy and the creative industries, to art conservation and product design.
• Bagri Foundation – a charity supporting Asian arts and culture, funding non-profit arts organisations across the UK.
• Creative Scotland – funding for individuals and organisations based in Scotland.
• Daiwa Foundation Small Grants and Awards – Grants to individuals and institutions in the UK and Japan in all areas of the visual and performing arts, the humanities, the social sciences, science and engineering, mathematics, business studies, and education.
• Edge Fund – funds grassroots groups, e.g. collectives, creating long-term change in society by addressing the causes of injustice and inequality.
• Elephant Trust – grants to make it possible for artists and those presenting their work to undertake and complete projects when frustrated by lack of funds.
• Fenton Arts Trust – Grants are available to support individual works, activities, performances or prizes in any field of artistic endeavour including drama, painting, sculpture, dance, music, poetry and architecture.
• Gane Trust – small grants for individuals, prioritising those in the South West and South Wales, across art, design and craft, social welfare and care, education and training.
• Grand Plan Fund – grants to people of colour based in the UK who want to bring a new creative project to life.
• Henry Moore Foundation – research and travel grants for research that expands the appreciation of sculpture.
• Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant – funding for travel and other practical costs, to help curators undertake collections and exhibition research projects in the UK or internationally. To be eligible, you must be employed by, or working with, a UK museum, gallery or arts organisation.
• Leverhulme Trust – offers fellowships, early career research funding, and scholarships for research and education.
• Marchus Trust – encourage and support the arts, in particular education and advancement in both music and architecture.
• Paul Mellon Centre – supports research, educational activities and the dissemination of knowledge in the fields of British art and architectural history.
• PRS – the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music and talent development, funding organisations and also individuals.
• Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) – offers scholarships and funding that support the training and education of talented and aspiring craftspeople.
• The Black Artists Grant (BAG) – offered by Creative Debuts as a no-strings attached financial support to help black artists.
• The Great British Sasakawa Foundation – an organisation dedicated to developing relationships between the UK and Japan, with grants for arts and culture.
• Wellcome Trust – focused primarily on physical, social, data and life sciences, the humanities and clinical research, but have funded art & science collaborations in the past.

Acknowledgments:

This guide is written by Harriet Cooper an independent curator, researcher, consultant and mentor working with artists and organisations. Currently working with Arts Council Collection, Southwark Park Galleries, University of the Arts London, Primary and individual artists across the UK.

The guide is commissioned in partnership by Arts University Bournemouth, Arts University Plymouth, The University of Plymouth and VASW.