Deadline: 5-Sep-25
Applications are now open for the Idlewild Trust Grant Programme.
Grant Categories
- Arts – Nurturing Early-Stage Professionals: To support opportunities for professionals (working creatively) within the performing and visual arts, at an early stage in their careers.
- Conservation of Cultural Heritage: To support the conservation of cultural heritage of recognized national or international importance, such as objects and works of art in museums, libraries, galleries, historic buildings or landscapes accessible to the public.
Funding Information
- They support two grant programmes, awarding one-off annual grants to a maximum of £7,000.
- Multi-year Awards: Application for these awards is by invitation only and the amount available for each award under this scheme will be £21,000 over 3 years.
Eligibility Criteria
- Arts – Nurturing Early-Stage Professionals:
- the programme should benefit participants aged 18 or over who have already completed their education to the highest level available in their chosen discipline.
- Organisations applying should be arts sector UK Registered Charities with a proven track record for excellence in their field.
- Conservation of Cultural Heritage:
- They’re interested in projects that aim to conserve historic or artistically important objects and works of art including artefacts, textiles, furniture, metalwork, manuscripts, and wall paintings.
- Works must be in museums, galleries, and historic buildings or their grounds, and be accessible to the public. Priority will be given to applications that include a knowledge sharing element as an outcome of the project.
- Organisational status:
- Organisations applying must be one of the following:
- UK Registered Charity 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.
- Organisations applying must be one of the following:
- Applications from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will be considered.
Ineligibility Criteria
- They will not fund:
- primary, secondary or higher education institutions, including university courses (specifically schools, colleges and conservatoires, whether state or private).
- They do not fund charities or projects based outside the UK, in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, or involving travel outside the UK.
Assessment Criteria
- Arts – Nurturing Early-Stage Professionals: Your application will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Quality of the application: the application is well presented, it meets all their criteria for consideration, e.g. Charity Commission financial reporting – and makes a compelling case for support.
- Leadership and Vision: the application makes clear that the organisation has a well defined vision for delivering excellence, provided through strong leadership with a demonstrable track record.
- Budget: the proposed budget is appropriate for the project and is targeted to delivering excellent programming for emerging professionals, with numbers of participants, outputs and impact for the participants explained.
- Impact: while sometimes difficult to ascertain, they prioritise projects that aspire to deliver impact beyond the life of the project to enable emerging talent to become fully professional.
- Performance: they will give priority to applications that offer performance experience for emerging professionals.
- Conservation of Cultural Heritage:
- Importance of the object: they seek to fund conservation projects of national and international importance.
- Access: priority will be given to objects that are easily accessible to the public
- Treatment: the proposed treatment is carried out by an accredited conservator and is appropriate for the project.
- Budget: the budget is proportional for the proposed project.
- Knowledge Transfer: priority will be given to projects that demonstrate a commitment to sharing the historical, technical, knowledge and experience gained through this project.
For more information, visit Idlewild Trust.