---
title: Learning Through Making Fund
description: UK fund from Freelands Foundation offering grants up to £25,000 for visual art education projects engaging audiences with making and material exploration.
url: https://www.artsume.com/programs/d06697ef-a59d-4ca2-8288-5d0a834204b3
type: program
status: closed
createdAt: "2026-09-04"
updatedAt: "2026-09-30"
programType: Grant
organization: Freelands Foundation
organizationUrl: https://www.artsume.com/o/freelands
deadline: "2026-09-11"
location: United Kingdom
isOnline: false
compensationRange: Grants of up to £25,000
---

# Learning Through Making Fund

**Hosted by:** Freelands Foundation

**Type:** Grant | **Location:** United Kingdom | **Deadline:** September 11, 2026

## About This Program

> "Making and material exploration in visual art education"

The Learning Through Making fund supports UK-based visual art organisations to bring opportunities for making into their work in art education. Working with materials - testing, shaping, experimenting and playing - changes how we think and learn. Freelands Foundation is looking to support exploratory projects that embrace openness, collaboration and iteration, enabling 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. They are particularly interested in approaches that challenge assumptions about making, and do not set out predefined outcomes. Materials means anything you might use to make art: recycling, sheets of metal, found objects, paint, paper, clay, mycelium, cloth. The fund also welcomes action-research projects that trial something new and do not have fully defined outcomes, including projects that seek to enable learning through exploration and testing, and projects that develop material literacy through a new series of workshops or events. Proposed projects can be of any length, from a few days to activity over a number of months, but must take place between 1 January and 31 December 2027, with funding of up to £25,000 provided no earlier than December 2026.

## Eligibility & Requirements

- **Geographic Eligibility:** National
- **Note:** Open to arts organisations that are registered charities and CICs of all sizes from across the UK. 1. UK based: Freelands Foundation can only fund organisations in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, with activity occurring within the United Kingdom. 2. Charitable Purpose: only visual arts organisations which are run with a charitable purpose and for public benefit are eligible for funding, using Charity Commission of England and Wales definitions. This includes, but is not limited to: organisations registered with The Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Scottish Charity Regulator, or The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland; exempt charities; galleries, museums, or organisations which are part of a Local Authority; galleries, museums, or organisations part of a larger charitable organisation, such as a university; Community Interest Companies, Community Benefit Societies, and other organisations with charitable purposes run for public benefit. 3. Community Interest Companies and other organisation types must demonstrate: their activities fall within charitable purposes determined by Charity Commission for England and Wales; asset lock provisions in the organisation's governing document; prohibit payment of dividends or other disbursement of surplus funds or profits; be able to physically segregate restricted funds, usually through a separate bank account. Organisations who have a prior or existing grant relationship with Freelands Foundation are eligible to apply, but may not apply for funding for activity that is already funded by Freelands Foundation.

### Additional Requirements

Download the application documents and email your completed application form with the subject line 'LTM Fund – Application'. You may also submit one additional page with any images, diagrams, or visual aids to support your responses in the application. An Access Form is available for those who require assistance or an alternative submission format.

## Compensation & Benefits

Grants of up to £25,000

**Includes:** Stipend

The Learning Through Making fund will provide small grants of up to £25,000 for visual art education projects that engage audiences with the process of making and exploration of materials. Funding will be provided no earlier than December 2026.

## Timeline

- **Opens:** June 17, 2026
- **Deadline:** September 11, 2026
- **Program Start:** January 1, 2027
- **Program End:** December 31, 2027

## How to Apply

Apply at: https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/engage/apply/grants/learning-through-making-fund