Applications Open: Arts and Conservation Grants in United Kingdom

Deadline: 5-Sep-23

The Idlewild Trust is offering grants to support conservation and the arts across the United Kingdom.

Types of Grants

• They run two grant programmes:
  • Arts: Nurturing Early-Stage Professionals
    • Grants to improve opportunities for professionals working creatively within the arts at an early stage in their career.
      • Aim: They want to improve opportunities for professionals working creatively in the arts at an early stage in their careers.
      • They are interested in programmes that encourage and nurture the talent of professional musicians, dancers, actors, writers and artists in the performing, fine and applied arts at an early stage of their careers. Participants should be 18 years or over. Programmes should be for talented early-stage professionals with existing training or very relevant experience.
  • Conservation: Objects and Works of Art
    • Grants to support the conservation of historic or artistically important objects and works of art in museums, galleries, places of worship, historic buildings, or their grounds.
      • Aim: They support the conservation of important works of art and objects that are being lost through the lack of funds to look after these works.
      • They are interested in projects that aim to conserve historic or artistically significant objects and works of art including artefacts, textiles, furniture, metalwork, manuscripts, wall paintings, tombs and stained glass of high quality. Works must be in museums, galleries, places of worship and historic buildings or their grounds, and be accessible to the public.

Funding Information

• They give grants of up to £5,000. The amount available varies year on year.
• You can apply for 100% of the project costs or apply for funding towards a project where there might be multiple funding sources.
• Idlewild supports projects in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Eligibility Criteria

The following information is applicable to both the grant programmes:

• Organisational status:
  • Organisations applying must be one of the following:
    • UK Registered Charity that is more than 2 years’ old: with two or more annual returns submitted on time to the Charity Commission.
    • UK Publicly Exempt Charity: most museums/galleries are Registered Charities, but not all.
    • Church that is an Excepted Charity: ‘excepted’ because their income is £100,000 pa or less.
  • Other churches are required to register as a UK Registered Charity.
  • Idlewild Trust also funds programmes for other early-stage professionals working creatively within the arts including composers, curators and theatre-makers (eg: directors and choreographers).

The timing of your project:

• Projects which have been completed, or where the majority of the project has been delivered are excluded.
• They can’t give grants to organisations that received a grant from Idlewild Trust within 24 months of the last award (measured between decision dates).
• So if you received a grant in May 2023 you would not be eligible to receive another grant until May 2025.

Ineligibility Criteria

They can’t fund:

• Higher, secondary or primary education institutions including universities, schools, colleges and conservatoires, whether state or private charities with the sole or main purpose of making grants;
• The organisations that have an income of £5,000 pa or under programmes for under 18-year-olds or gap year students;
• The conservation of organs and bells;
• Fund environmental projects or conservation of lands.

For more information, visit Idlewild Trust.