Arts and communities
Arts and communities
Introduction
In 2023, we launched a three-year programme of Fellowships focused on Arts and Communities: strengthening society through creative practice.
A Fellowship funds you to spend 4-8 weeks meeting and learning from leading innovators in your field around the world in order to share and implement that learning in the UK.
In this programme, we are seeking Fellowship applications that support positive social change and resilience in UK communities of all kinds through engagement with arts, culture and creative practices. More information is below. You can sign up for application alerts by email here.
Please share information about Fellowships by sharing and downloading this pdf.
Applications have closed for this year. We will re-open in September 2025.
We are particularly interested in projects that facilitate collaboration and co-creation between communities, creatives and other sectors to achieve this. We will prioritise applications that adopt inclusive, participatory and community-led approaches.
We welcome projects covering any area of creative activity across all art forms, such as the traditional arts, architecture, design and planning, community arts, curation and production, policy, education, science and more.
Fellows in this programme form part of a dedicated community specialising in this area, with tailored opportunities for support and networking in this field.
This programme is guided by our Arts and Culture Working Group of Fellows and other experts in this field.
Fellows awarded in previous years have carried out projects in this area. See examples of their impact stories here.
We recognise our responsibility to the environment through our Fellowship programme and our operations. Our progress on this is explained here.
General criteria for arts applications
Our general criteria for arts applications are as follows:
- Any application identifying itself as an arts project must have a significant element of tangible arts practice. We are particularly keen to hear from people who are practitioners, in any art form.
- We look for a public benefit in all of our Fellowships. Any application identifying itself as an arts project should demonstrate how it will have a public benefit wider than advancing the applicant’s personal artistic practice.
- We include all art forms, whether visual, literary, musical, performance, design, crafts or other.
Please do not apply if your project is based around:
- A personal artistic project, such as a personal piece of work or exhibition.
- An artist/writer/composer in residence scheme.
- A piece of academic or theoretical research.
We are particularly interested in projects that facilitate collaboration and co-creation between communities, creatives and other sectors to achieve this. We will prioritise applications that adopt inclusive, participatory and community-led approaches.
We welcome projects covering any area of creative activity across all art forms, such as the traditional arts, architecture, design and planning, community arts, curation and production, policy, education, science and more.
Fellows in this programme form part of a dedicated community specialising in this area, with tailored opportunities for support and networking in this field.
This programme is guided by our Arts and Culture Working Group of Fellows and other experts in this field.
Fellows awarded in previous years have carried out projects in this area. See examples of their impact stories here.
We recognise our responsibility to the environment through our Fellowship programme and our operations. Our progress on this is explained here.
General criteria for arts applications
Our general criteria for arts applications are as follows:
- Any application identifying itself as an arts project must have a significant element of tangible arts practice. We are particularly keen to hear from people who are practitioners, in any art form.
- We look for a public benefit in all of our Fellowships. Any application identifying itself as an arts project should demonstrate how it will have a public benefit wider than advancing the applicant’s personal artistic practice.
- We include all art forms, whether visual, literary, musical, performance, design, crafts or other.
Please do not apply if your project is based around:
- A personal artistic project, such as a personal piece of work or exhibition.
- An artist/writer/composer in residence scheme.
- A piece of academic or theoretical research.