Freelands Foundation
Selected by Freelands
read
Freelands Awards – Celebrating Art Education
Reflecting on the role of the Freelands Awards in championing the importance of art education within the UK’s cultural life.
When Freelands Foundation was founded in 2015, we set out to support visual art, art education and research, encouraging innovative approaches and responding to the cultural landscape of the United Kingdom. Over the past decade that landscape has continued to evolve, with new challenges appearing. The Foundation has evolved in response too, increasing its focus on art education and concentrating its energies and resources on supporting this increasingly fragile area.
When Freelands Foundation was founded in 2015, we set out to support visual art, art education and research, encouraging innovative approaches and responding to the cultural landscape of the United Kingdom. Over the past decade that landscape has continued to evolve, with new challenges appearing. The Foundation has evolved in response too, increasing its focus on art education and concentrating its energies and resources on supporting this increasingly fragile area.
read
Spotlight: Ikon Gallery
Reflections from Ikon Gallery's Youth Programme (IYP) and project 'Slow Boat' – part of Freelands' spotlighting the breadth and impact of our funded projects that champion art education.
The Ikon Youth Programme (IYP) extends agency and space to young people through a peer-led alternative art school hosted on the Slow Boat, a canal boat converted to an art education space. Created in 2010 responding to young people’s desire for “a room of their own” for making and presenting artwork, the Slow Boat has connected young people to emerging and established artists, facilitated knowledge and skills sharing, and explored philosophies of democratised artistic spaces. These programmes target young people aged 16 to 18 in Further Education, Sixth Form, Alternative Provision and SEN schools who have limited access to visual art education. Ikon seeks to enable these young people to produce and present their version of contemporary art as it intersects with popular culture and political activism.
The Ikon Youth Programme (IYP) extends agency and space to young people through a peer-led alternative art school hosted on the Slow Boat, a canal boat converted to an art education space. Created in 2010 responding to young people’s desire for “a room of their own” for making and presenting artwork, the Slow Boat has connected young people to emerging and established artists, facilitated knowledge and skills sharing, and explored philosophies of democratised artistic spaces. These programmes target young people aged 16 to 18 in Further Education, Sixth Form, Alternative Provision and SEN schools who have limited access to visual art education. Ikon seeks to enable these young people to produce and present their version of contemporary art as it intersects with popular culture and political activism.
read
Spotlight: Chisenhale Gallery
Reflections from Chisenhale Gallery's projects on 'Art Making in Unstable Contexts' – part of Freelands' spotlighting the breadth and impact of our funded projects that champion art education.
Chisenhale Gallery partnered with London East Alternative Provision (LEAP) and artists Edwin Minguard, Femi Tiwo and Ashley Lloyd to explore art teaching provision in a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). Working across an academic year, the artists and LEAP Arts Lead Lennox Barton tested how the classroom can be a place for experimentation and practice-based learning within the structures of the PRU as an institution. With increasing referrals to PRUs from mainstream education, and the complex backgrounds and needs of students, Chisenhale Gallery sought to understand the potential impact of practising artists in these classrooms, working with both teachers and students. PRUs have remained an under-explored area for socially engaged artistic practice, with few artistic projects from which to draw learnings. Through connecting artists, teachers and students to new experiences and opportunities in this context, Chisenhale Gallery explored and documented a process of multidirectional learning in the PRU art classroom.
Chisenhale Gallery partnered with London East Alternative Provision (LEAP) and artists Edwin Minguard, Femi Tiwo and Ashley Lloyd to explore art teaching provision in a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). Working across an academic year, the artists and LEAP Arts Lead Lennox Barton tested how the classroom can be a place for experimentation and practice-based learning within the structures of the PRU as an institution. With increasing referrals to PRUs from mainstream education, and the complex backgrounds and needs of students, Chisenhale Gallery sought to understand the potential impact of practising artists in these classrooms, working with both teachers and students. PRUs have remained an under-explored area for socially engaged artistic practice, with few artistic projects from which to draw learnings. Through connecting artists, teachers and students to new experiences and opportunities in this context, Chisenhale Gallery explored and documented a process of multidirectional learning in the PRU art classroom.
read
Spotlight: Focal Point x TOMA x Metal
Reflections from Focal Point x TOMA x Metal's project 'Creative Break Time' – part of Freelands' spotlighting the breadth and impact of our funded projects that champion art education.
Rooted in the art ecosystem of Southend-on-Sea, Focal Point Gallery, Metal Culture and TOMA will bring Southend artists and teachers together to radically shift the access of teachers to “creative time”, fostering inspiration, collaboration and peer learning through Creative Break Time. Twelve teachers will work with twelve local artists to co-design tools and build networks that encourage personal artistic development and generate cross-school collaboration.
Rooted in the art ecosystem of Southend-on-Sea, Focal Point Gallery, Metal Culture and TOMA will bring Southend artists and teachers together to radically shift the access of teachers to “creative time”, fostering inspiration, collaboration and peer learning through Creative Break Time. Twelve teachers will work with twelve local artists to co-design tools and build networks that encourage personal artistic development and generate cross-school collaboration.
watch
Belonging in Practice: The Artist-Teacher Residency
A 2025 film by Kit Vincent exploring Dianne Minnicucci’s time as the resident artist-teacher at Thomas Tallis School. Part of Autograph’s Visible Practice Residency.