Aims/priorities: The funding is intended to support not-for-profit creative and cultural organisations in England in revitalising, restoring, retrofitting, or renewing cultural assets, including urgent work to address issues which prevent organisations from effectively delivering work for the public.
Arts Council England’s remit covers visual arts, music, libraries, literature, theatre, dance, combined arts, and museums. It is expected that applications for the Creative Foundations Fund for either buildings or equipment will support access to a range of high-quality cultural experiences.
It is expected that the fund will support a mix of projects of varying sizes across the English regions.
Who can apply? Not-for-profit cultural organisations based 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. (e.g. 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.
Grant amount: The total budget for the fund is £85 million.
There are two levels of grant funding:
- Strand 1 has a budget of £25 million with
- Grants of between £100,000 and £1 million.
- Strand 2 has a budget of £60 million with
- Grants above £1 million up to and including £10 million (maximum).
Grants near the maximum value are likely to be made only by exception.
Projects must not start before 1 April 2026 and must end no later than 31 March 2029 (36 months).
Application process: Full guidance, including eligibility criteria and details of how to apply, can be found on Arts Council England’s website.
There is a two stage application process for both strands:
- The first stage is to submit an Expression of Interest between noon on 30 June 2025 and noon on 25 July 2025.
- All applicants will be informed of the outcome of their Expression of Interest by 22 August 2025.
- Those who are successful at stage one will be invited to submit a full application by the deadline of noon on 31 October 2025
- Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by 31 March 2026.
In order to apply, all organisations must create a user account and applicant profile on Arts Council England’s Grantium system. This can be done before the online Expression of Interest form opens on Grantium on 30 June 2025. 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.
Creative and 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 they must be for separate projects in different locations.
Deadline: Friday 25 July 2025, noon.
Contact information: Email: enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk
Website: Creative Foundations Fund: Guidance for applicants | Arts Council England