Freelands Art Fund Acquisition

This funding opportunity helps museums to acquire contemporary art by women artists.

Funding range: Up to £60,000

This programme will open for expressions of interest on 7 October 2025.

Professional Get funding Freelands Art Fund Acquisition

This partnership between Freelands Foundation and Art Fund offers grants of up to £60,000 for museums to acquire contemporary art and increase public access to work by women artists in the UK.

The annual Freelands Award was established in 2016 to enable arts organisations to present an exhibition, including significant new work, by a mid-career woman artist who may not yet have received the public recognition that their work deserves.

Winning artists are Jacqueline Donachie (with Fruitmarket Gallery, 2016), Lis Rhodes (with Nottingham Contemporary, 2017), Veronica Ryan (with Spike Island, 2018), Hannah Starkey (with the Hepworth Wakefield, 2019), Ingrid Pollard (with MK Gallery, 2020), Jacqueline Poncelet (with MIMA, 2021) and Everlyn Nicodemus (with National Galleries Scotland, 2024)

The Freelands Art Fund Acquisition enables museums and public collections to acquire work by Freelands Award-winning women artists. Through bolstering contemporary collections in the UK, this initiative increases public access to work by women artists and brokers new relationships between artists, organisations, museums and their audiences.

The first acquisitions announced in 2022 were:

Lis Rhodes, Ambiguous Journeys (2018), Dissonance and Disturbance (2012) and Pictures on Pink Paper (1982), presented to The Hunterian, Glasgow
Veronica Ryan, Exclusion Zones I (2021), presented to Leeds Art Gallery

The next acquisitions announced in 2023 were:

Ingrid Pollard Three Drops of Blood (2022), presented to The Box Plymouth
Hannah Starkey Kirkgate Towers, Wakey Tavern, Beauty Shop and Bus Stop (2022), presented to The Hepworth Wakefield

The most recent acquisitions announced in 2025 was:

Jacqueline Poncelet, 12 works spanning 1982-2023, presented to Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art

We are launching an open call for museums and public collections interested in acquiring work by Everlyn Nicodemus.

These acquisitions are made possible with the support of Freelands Foundation.

What we can fund

When the programme is open, you can complete your expression of interest and submit it to Ying Tan, Senior Programmes Manager.

Applicants are asked to specify which work they want to acquire.

Museums can consider acquiring any existing work by the artist, including but not limited to works exhibited at the award exhibition.

The Freelands Award-winning commissioning organisations are eligible to apply, on the condition that they have a public collection.

Applications for joint acquisitions can be considered.

Applicants can acquire more than one work, as long as their proposal remains within the allocated budget (£60,000).

Who can apply

We will consider applications from public museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries and archives based anywhere in the UK that are:

open for at least half the week for at least six months of the year
fully Accredited through the Arts Council Accreditation Scheme or other national equivalents
Most organisations we support will hold collections, which may include fine and applied art and design, archaeology and/or social history. They will also be committed to delivering activity that increases public access to these collections, which has public benefit and aligns with Art Fund’s charitable objectives

All grant recipients will be asked to sign our terms and conditions. We do not offer funding under this programme in the following instances:

Organisations that exist to make profit, including: Private Limited Companies, Public Limited Companies, Unlimited Companies, or Sole Traders.
General Partnerships, Limited Partnerships, or Limited Liability Partnerships.
Commercial organisations.
Organisations with a focus on music, drama, dance and art forms outside the visual arts.
Individuals or unincorporated bodies directly (unless an application is submitted by or with the formal written agreement of an eligible organisation (as described above).
Hospitals and places of worship.
Schools or higher education institutions.

Key deadlines

Deadline for expressions of interest: 19 December 2025

How to apply

Your application

Get in touch

If you have any questions about this process, get in touch with Ying Tan, Senior Programmes Manager, Acquisitions.

Get in touch

Submit your expression of interest

Download an expression of interest form, complete it and send it to Ying Tan, Senior Programmes Manager, Acquisitions.

If you require application forms in an alternative format, please contact Ying Tan.

Expression of interest

Next steps

February 2026

The successful application is selected by a decision-making panel made of representatives from Art Fund, Freelands Foundation, and an external organisation.

March-April 2026

The successful applicant will have a two-month time period to have a more in-depth conversation with the artist/their gallery representative and select the work they wish to acquire. The successful applicant will then submit an acquisition application to the full Art Fund board for approval.

Summer 2026

Art Fund Board meeting. Decision communicated to applicant in the following week.