The Sir Nicholas Goodison Award aims to support the next generation of ambitious contemporary craft curators in the UK.

The award, up to £60,000, offers 100% funding for a focused collecting project, enabling a curator to expand their museum or gallery’s collection of contemporary craft into exciting new areas or deepen existing holdings in significant ways.

The awardee will also receive a generous funding allocation for research, travel and training, plus the support of a mentor and the Art Fund team.

We are particularly keen to see applications where the aim is to:

• Diversify representation in collections
• Make collections and narratives more relevant to audiences and communities

Who should apply

We welcome applications from curators who are:

• In the early stages of their career, or who have had limited opportunities to collect.
• Employed by or working in partnership with museums and galleries that are accredited or working towards accreditation.

We will also consider applications from freelance curators or researchers, provided you can demonstrate that you will be officially affiliated with a museum or gallery for the duration of your project, that the works acquired will join a public collection and that your participation will have a longer-term institutional impact.

In your application you will be expected to demonstrate why receiving the award would benefit not only your museum/gallery and its contemporary craft collections but also, crucially, your own professional development in a way that would not otherwise be possible.

Full details can be found in Guidance for Applicants.

Credits and acknowledgments

This exceptional award has been created in recognition of Sir Nicholas Goodison’s outstanding contribution to the work of Art Fund and the wider museum sector, and his love of contemporary craft.