Deadline: 25-Jul-2025
The Arts Council England is delighted to invite applications for its Creative Foundations Fund to support creative and cultural organisations in England in revitalising, restoring, retrofitting or renewing cultural assets, including urgent work which prevents organisations from effectively delivering work for the public.
This investment will result in organisations producing high-quality creative work, accelerate growth in the creative and cultural sectors, and make places more attractive to live, work, visit, and invest in.
The Creative Foundations Fund will focus on improving existing cultural buildings and equipment to improve the economic sustainability of the creative and cultural sector. They expect organisations to take creative approaches with their current buildings to deliver outcomes such as, but not limited to, reducing operating costs and increasing revenue streams. The fund may support expanded cultural or creative facilities within an existing site where it contributes to the financial viability of the venue but not the development of new cultural buildings or adaptive reuse of existing buildings for cultural purposes.
Aims
- The aims of this investment are to:
- increase the economic sustainability of cultural and creative organisations through improving existing cultural buildings and equipment
- decrease the risk and financial impact of abandoned or cancelled performances, exhibitions, or events caused by equipment or infrastructure failure
- grow audience engagement and access by underserved communities to high-quality creative work and cultural infrastructure.
Funding Information
- Strand 1: £100,000 (minimum) up to and including £1,000,000 (maximum).
- Strand 2: £1,000,001 (minimum) up to and including £10,000,000 (maximum).
- Duration: Projects must not start before 1 April 2026. The deadline to complete projects is 31 March 2029 (36 months).
Expected Outcomes
- The outcomes they expect to see from this investment are:
- improved value for money through decreasing the amount of expenditure on maintenance and repair of cultural assets
- reduced loss of high-quality cultural work from creative and cultural organisations as a result of asset failure or degradation
- cultural organisations develop more sustainable financial and business models, adapting to the changing environment and needs of the communities with whom they work
- improved energy efficiency and environmental performance of cultural buildings and equipment.
Eligible Projects
- Capital expenditure to support the following broad categories of projects:
- Equipment projects: moveable furniture, equipment, and vehicles (Strand 1 only).
- Building projects: building work to existing cultural buildings or expanded cultural facilities within an existing site (Strand 1 & 2).
- Building and equipment projects in one application (Strand 1 & 2).
Eligibility Criteria
- Not-for-profit cultural organisations based in England.
- Organisations must demonstrate through their governance documents that their primary aims are cultural and that the activities they are applying for fall within the remit of Arts Council England.
- Organisations must demonstrate that they have presented or delivered cultural activity in the last 12 months.
- Examples of the kinds of organisations that are eligible to apply include:
- charities
- charitable trusts
- charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) registered with the Charity Commission
- charitable companies registered with the Charity Commission
Ineligibility Criteria
- Accredited and non-accredited museums (national and non-national)
- Libraries
- Individuals
- Organisations that distribute profit to members or shareholders
- Organisations that are not properly constituted with a governing document
- Organisations who do not have a registered address in England
- Organisations whose primary aims are not cultural as set out in their governance documents.
For more information, visit Arts Council England.