Aims/priorities: Funding may support expanded cultural or creative facilities within an existing site that contribute to the venue's financial viability, but not the development of new cultural buildings or the adaptive reuse of existing buildings for cultural purposes.
The funding aims 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.
The expected outcomes 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.
Who can apply? Not-for-profit cultural organisations based and registered in England can apply.
Eligible organisations include:
- Charities
- Charitable trusts
- Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) registered with the Charity Commission
- Charitable companies registered with the Charity Commission
- Community Interest Companies (CICs) registered with the CIC regulator
- Limited companies registered at Companies House who do not distribute profit to their members or shareholders
- Statutory bodies and other public bodies who run or maintain cultural services
- Charitable community benefit societies, registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), provided their governance documents can demonstrate that any profits are reinvested for the benefit of the 'society' instead of its members (eg, include an asset lock).
To be eligible, applicants 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.
- Demonstrate that they have presented or delivered cultural activity in the last 12 months.
The lead organisation (the organisation submitting the application) should be properly constituted with a governing document.
Cultural organisations can only submit one Expression of Interest to either Strand 1 or 2 for this fund (not both).
More than one Expression of Interest will be accepted from statutory bodies and other public bodies that run or maintain cultural services, but each must be for a separate project in a different location.
Grant amount: The total budget for the fund is £76.8 million for 2026/27 with:
- Strand 1 (up to £25 million) offering grants of between £100,000 and £1 million for building projects, equipment purchases, or a combination of both.
- Strand 2 (up to £51.8 million) offering grants above £1 million up to and including £10 million for building projects, or combined building projects and equipment purchases (but not equipment only purchases).
Projects must not start before 1 April 2027 and they must end no later than 31 March 2030 (36 months).
Application process: Full guidance, including eligibility criteria and details of how to apply, can be found on the Arts Council England website.
There are separate guidance notes for strand 1 and for strand 2.
There is a two stage application process for both strands:
- The first stage is to submit an Expression of Interest between 13 July 2026 and 7 August 2026 (noon).
- Those who are successful at stage one will be invited to submit a full application by the deadline of 23 October 2026.
In order to apply, all organisations must create a user account and applicant profile on Arts Council England's Grantium system. It can take up to 10 working days for a new user account to be approved so this should be done as soon as possible.
Contact Arts Council England for further information.
Deadline: 7 August 2026 (noon).
Contact information: Email: access@artscouncil.org.uk
Website: Creative Foundations Fund: Guidance for applicants | Arts Council England