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A fellowship provides a rare yet vital environment in which an artist and art student can build a symbiotic, co-learning relationship. For students, the presence of a Fellow offers immediate insight into an early career practice. For an artist, working alongside art students gives them the opportunity to examine their own practice and approaches within an environment that supports learning and experimentation.

The Freelands Studio Fellowships is an annual programme in partnership between Freelands Foundation and eight UK universities who co-develop the programme, with the Foundation providing the funding and infrastructure and the universities hosting the individual Fellowships, as well as recruiting and supporting the artists. 

At Freelands Foundation, we believe that residencies cultivate crucial learning environments for artist development. We’re interested in how residencies can deepen our research into the ways in which artistic practice responds to place, models collaborative ways of working, and reimagines shared space. 

First piloted in 2023 in partnership with Porthmeor Studios in St Ives (Cornwall), our annual residency programme invites artists to work in one of the UK’s oldest studio sites. The programme offers artists the space to develop their practice alongside peers, with time to exchange ideas and grow their work, recognising the importance of the studio as a site of artist-to-artist learning. Residencies take place three times each year with six artists taking part in month-long stays. 

Our commitment to supporting the relationship between making and learning sits at the core of our residencies, while each iteration of the programme includes studio space, mentorship, accommodation, travel support, and a grant towards living and material costs. With no fixed outcome, artists are free to use the time to think, make, and explore their practice on their own terms, informed in collaboration with the studio, location, and other artists sharing the space. 

Past residents at Porthmeor Studios include Edward Jones | Kirsty Bell | Rebecca Foster Clarke | Holly Smith | Charlotte Guérard | Rosie Tuff | Okikioluwa Akinfe | Rachel Bride Ashton | Eleanor Daly | Georgina Harris | Emma Hall | Fred Ingoldby. 

The Freelands Award was established in 2016 to enable a UK arts organisation to present an exhibition, including significant new work, by a mid-career woman artist who may not yet have received the acclaim or public recognition her work deserves, in response to research commissioned by the Foundation which highlighted a lack of representation of mid-career women artists in gallery spaces. The award was paired with the Freelands Art Fund Acquisition – a funding opportunity offering grants of up to £60,000 for museums to acquire contemporary art by the winning artist and further increase public access to work by women artists in the UK. Growing in prominence, this award fulfilled a vital role in motivating and financially supporting organisations to offer a career-defining opportunity to a woman artist, while contributing to a growing legacy of increased representation of women artists in the visual arts.

Over the years, the Award has evolved in response to the shifting arts landscape. Since 2024, as the Foundation has refined its mission to champion the symbiotic relationship between teaching and making art – and the value of art education for all – we aim to continue the impact the Freelands Award has had in driving pivotal shifts in the sector, with a renewed focus on celebrating commitment to visual art education across the UK. 

In 2025, Freelands Foundation will re-conceptualise and relaunch the Freelands Award, while continuing the award’s specific legacy and unique impact in nurturing positive change in the sector.