Freelands Foundation: Inclusive Practices Fund

Overview

Background

In 2024, [The] Runnymede Trust and Freelands Foundation published Visualise: race and inclusion in secondary education, as part of their commitment to address racial inequality in the visual art education. The report evidenced the ‘creativity crisis’ in art education, its disproportionate impact on minority ethnic* students and a curriculum which fails to represent them. It reiterated the ‘systematic under-representation of minority ethnic artists and their work’ within and outside of the school system. The report also highlighted great potential for visual art organisations to help create more inclusive and empowering art education offerings.

The report produced several recommendations dedicated to tackling the challenges within the education system. As a Foundation they are interested in acting upon these recommendations in a range of ways which meet their charitable purpose, as they seek to champion, advance and expand the teaching and learning of art for everyone.

Aims of the Fund

They are looking for bold and diverse approaches to art education initiatives which meet the needs of all young people, with specific attention to representation of work by minority ethnic* artists and the norms of engagement which may impact young people’s experience and comfort.

Where the recommendations in the Visualise report relate to structures in the education system, this fund gives the opportunity for schools, teachers, artists and organisations to take the time to interrogate, experiment and trial projects to reimagine what engagement and belonging could be.

This fund will invest in space for ideas and ‘research & development’ initiatives which need not have specific outcomes. For example, your project could take the form of action research, reflective practice, or an opportunity to trial a new or adapted way of working, collaborating with diverse audiences, artists, schools or communities.

Your project should meet one or both of the two following areas of interest:

1. Investigating engagement

“When we present a homogenising worldview to students, we limit the imaginative and creative vision that students have sight of and that might encourage them to embrace and explore their identities for themselves.” (Visualise report, pg. 21)

Visual art education should be relevant and empowering, embracing a diversity of artists and works that reflect young people’s lived experiences. They’re looking to support boundary-pushing forms and methods of engaging young people in visual art education to reimagine what inclusive engagement could be.

2. Nurturing belonging

“In our call for evidence, one emerging young minority ethnic artist articulated something of these findings from a personal perspective, telling us how gallery spaces can be intimidating if you did not grow up visiting them, that the expectations of silence and slow walking made her feel uncomfortable.” (Visualise report, pg. 70)

Traditional visual art environments such as galleries, museums and studios can be challenging, uncomfortable, and even intimidating spaces. They are looking for projects that work with communities and artists to challenge existing norms and create inclusive spaces that embrace curiosity and practice care.

Grant Amount

Grants of up to £25,000 per year are available for project durations of 1 – 2 years (maximum grant amount is £50,000 over 2 years).

Eligible project expenditure:

• Project staffing (salaries and freelance rates)
• Materials
• Participant/artist costs e.g. travel
• Marketing associated with the project
• Overheads of no more than 5% total grant request
• A contingency of no more than 5% total project budget .

Only expenditure that occurs after a grant is awarded can be funded, and funds cannot be applied to retrospective expenses. All specific expenditure for which the grant is requested must fall within the grant period of up to two years, although your project may continue beyond this period.

Funding will be provided no earlier than December 2024. Projects/ funded expenditure may only begin between 1 January- 31 March 2025.

Notes

Terminology*

Language related to race has always been contested; there are no fixed categories or definitions, and terminology is always political. Terms relating to race, and how people choose to self-identify, are deeply personal, and they recognise that all terms which group racialised people together are problematic and limiting.

The term ‘minority ethnic’ is used in the context of the Inclusive Practices Fund following its use in the Visualise report. The term is used to refer to people of Black, Asian or other minoritised ethnic groups in the UK; it is a domestic lens which has helped to unify many communities. In the past, the term has served as a tool to make comparisons with the white population in the UK and to reflect a common way of gathering and collating statistics and in company diversity monitoring.

However, they recognise that ‘minority ethnic’ is an imperfect and very technical way to describe people, which does little to reflect the joy and power of the people it refers to.

Applicants are encouraged to use the terms which best reflects and hold meaning for your communities in your application.