A new fund supporting making and material exploration in visual art organisations across the UK.
The Learning Through Making fund supports UK-based visual art organisations to bring opportunities for making into their work in art education. We believe making matters. Working with materials – testing, shaping, experimenting and playing – changes how we think and learn.
We are looking to support exploratory projects that embrace openness, collaboration and iteration. We want to enable organisations to work in an expansive way with materials, unpicking and challenging preconceptions about making and material literacy, interrogating practice and working in an open and collaborative way.
This could mean trying out a new idea, developing workshops or events, adding a making-focused strand to existing work, or improving access to materials, facilities, transport or specialist expertise.
We are particularly interested in approaches that challenge assumptions about making, and do not set out predefined outcomes. What becomes possible when we let materials lead?
The Learning Through Making fund will support projects of any length, taking place between 1 January and 31 December 2027 with funding of up to £25,000. Funding will be provided no earlier than December 2026.
- Application Support Session #2: 10.30am, Wednesday 12 August 2026
- Applications Close: 12pm, Friday 11 September 2026
To apply
For more information and how to apply, go to the Freelands Foundation website below.
Applications Close: 12pm, Friday 11 September 2026
