At Freelands Foundation, we believe in the intrinsic value of art and that making is fundamental. We champion art education – nurturing and fostering material literacy and making. 

We do this by championing the symbiotic relationship between teaching, learning, and making art in all contexts, and encourage artists to teach and view teaching as an artistic practice. We value life-long learning as integral to artists’ work – enabling collaborative relationships between teachers, schools, and universities with galleries and museums.

To foster the development of bold and diverse approaches to teaching and learning art in all contexts, we research and explore art education at all levels: from primary to postgraduate, as well as outside the formal system. Through progressive training and development, we support teachers to expand and sustain their practices.

Our approach combines our ongoing funding, in the form of grants, awards, fellowships, and residencies, with action research. We offer and support academic commissions, workshops, discussions, exhibitions, publications, films, and partnerships, alongside a dedicated resource Library and a growing repository of informative, instructional, and inspiring online resources.

Freelands Foundation was set up in 2015 by Elisabeth Murdoch. It is a registered charity (number 1162648).